Afghanistan has continued its astonishing ascent of cricket’s hierarchy by qualifying for a world championship finals tournament for the first time ever.

Its place in the World Twenty20, to be played in the West Indies in April and May, was sealed Saturday when it won two matches to finish first in the eight-team qualifying tournament in Dubai.

It will play South Africa and India in one of the four preliminary pools, while Ireland, the runner-up in Dubai, is drawn against England and West Indies.

While Afghanistan was delighted to defeat Ireland by eight wickets to win the final, its crucial victory came earlier Saturday, beating the United Arab Emirates in a tense match.

Ireland beat the Netherlands, the giant-killer of the 2009 World Twenty20 finals, in the other eliminator Saturday. So with two teams to qualify, Afghanistan and Ireland could regard the final as a celebration, knowing that the vital objective had already been secured.

Afghanistan’s triumph was watched by an exuberant crowd of around 6,000.

Its swing bowler Hamid Hassan, whose nine wickets for 123 runs in five matches made him one of the most effective bowlers in the tournament, wrote in his blog for the Cricinfo Web site: “It is hard to take in that we are going to playing matches against major international sides that I only ever seen play on the television. We might not be able to beat the top teams, but I know that we are going to fight really hard and give them a tough test.”

His disbelief is understandable. Afghanistan has had a national cricket organization for only 15 years, and there are six turf pitches in the entire country. The violence and instability of life there need no further elaboration.

Yet success at cricket is a byproduct of the past two decades of instability. Hassan, like many Afghanistan cricketers, was a child refugee from violence at home who learned about cricket in displaced persons camps in neighboring Pakistan, one of the world powers in the sport.

Even without this unpropitious environment, Afghanistan’s progress would be staggering. Cricket’s hierarchies are pretty stable, not only in terms of the 10 nations that have full test status, but those that are next in the pecking order.

The seven other contestants in Dubai — Ireland, the Netherlands, Scotland, the United Arab Emirates, Canada, Kenya and the United States — have been the leading nontest nations for a while.

Afghanistan has, by contrast, exploded from the game’s depths. While the International Cricket Council aimed to provide a ladder for progression in creating its World League for nontest nations, it cannot have dreamed that any nation would be capable of rising from Division Five to become arguably the strongest nontest nation in little over a year.

The Twenty20 triumph follows successes in other formats of the game.

The World League is played in the longer 50-over one-day international format. Only one of the I.C.C.’s less farsighted decisions, choosing to reduce by two the number of qualifiers for the next World Cup — to be played in South Asia in 2011 — cost Afghanistan a place in that tournament.

Afghanistan has also had an immediate effect in the Intercontinental Trophy, which matches the best nontest nations in four-day matches. Afghanistan had the better of its first match, against Zimbabwe, and was held to a draw only because of a dominant performance by the opposing captain, Tatenda Taibu, a player not merely of international but world class, who scored 172 and 100.

It has gone on to beat the Dutch in Amstelveen in the Netherlands, and Ireland, then reigning champion, at Dambulla in Sri Lanka. The last venue illustrates another of Afghanistan’s handicaps — that security issues make it impossible for it to play international matches at home. Its next match is at “home” against Canada in Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates, starting Saturday. A victory would take Afghanistan into first place in the Intercontinental Trophy league table.

Players like Hassan, opening batsman Noor Ali — equally effective in all formats — and the all-rounder Mohammed Nabi have shown themselves to be among the most gifted outside test cricket.

Nor are any of them likely to be near their limit of achievement. All-rounder Karim Sadiq, the oldest man in the Twenty20 squad, turns 26 on Thursday. Hassan is 22; Ali, 21; and Nabi, 24.

In the West Indies, Afghanistan will be everybody’s second-favorite team, echoing the team from another war zone, Georgia, at Rugby Union World Cups.

Logic says that a joyous, romantic narrative will hit the buffers of cold professionalism. Yet it said the same when Afghanistan joined Ireland and others among the nontest game’s elite. Who knows where this story ends ?

Jubilant Afghan cricketers said on Sunday they were ready to take on the world’s best players and strive to make their war-ravaged country proud after they qualified for the World Twenty20 finals.

Afghanistan beat Ireland by eight wickets in the weekend qualifier in Dubai and progress to the third World Twenty20 in the West Indies in April-May – the first major tournament for the Afghan team.

“We will have matches against India and South Africa. We will be working hard to upset one of the teams,” said batting all-rounder Karim Sadiq, whose team will be in Group C with India and South Africa.

The 25-year-old predicted big celebrations over the team’s qualification in his homeland, where Afghan, US and Nato troops are battling a Taliban insurgency in a country battered by decades of war.

“People in my country are very happy, and there will be big celebrations in Afghanistan when we return,” he told AFP by phone from Dubai. “I think maybe three million people will come to the city to celebrate and dance.”

Sadiq, who scored an aggressive 15-ball 34 in the final, said he will prepare extensively for the World Twenty20.

“I will go to Afghanistan and practice on a 14-metre wicket against fast bowlers where the ball will be coming at 160-165 kilometres (per hour) and I will practice just hitting and hitting,” he said.

“Dale Steyn will be no problem,” said Sadiq of the South African spearhead.

“He bowls at 150 or 145 (kilometres per hour) – we have Hamid Hassan who bowls at 145 and Shapoor Zadran and we hit sixes in every over off them back in Afghanistan.”

Leg-spinner Samiullah Shenwari said the qualification was a dream come true for Afghanistan’s players.

“Our dreams are realised and we are now playing in the ICC World Twenty20. We worked very hard in Sri Lanka for one month in the build-up to this tournament.... We will soon be ready for world’s best,” he said from Dubai.

“I remember watching cricket from the West Indies on television when I was young. I am so happy that I will now be playing in the land of my favourite player Brian Lara,” said Shenwari of the retired West Indian legend.

Raees Ahmedzai vowed his team-mates would rival Indian stars.

“Our players want to match players like Yuvraj Singh and Mahendra Singh Dhoni,” said the 25-year-old leg-spinner.

“We want to see the grounds in the West Indies and show the world that we are not behind the other teams and show everybody that Afghanistan is one of the best cricket teams in the world.”

Most of the Afghan players took to the game in refugee camps in Pakistan in the last three decades, before returning home.

Afghanistan outlasted UAE in a last-over finish to storm into the ICC World Twenty20 that will be held in May. Congratulations to Afghanistan. Its good to see Afghans doing good despite the conditions in their country. I am sure they can be better than Bangladesh. The accomplishments of Afghan cricket have been achieved in the space of a mere eight years, the transformation beginning when Ahmadzai and most of his teammates returned to their native Afghanistan after having lived in exile in Pakistan for most of their lives. Unlike kite flying and other pastimes banned by the Taliban, cricket was allowed in Afghanistan.