U-19 World Cup: England outclass Afghanistan to cement place in final

England kept their nerve to become the first team to reach the ICC Under 19 Mens Cricket World Cup final after edging a thriller with Afghanistan by 15 runsSpinner Rehan Ahmed became the hero for the Young Lions taking three wickets in the penultimate over at a crucial point when their opponents needed just 18 runs from the last 10 ballsEngland will now face the winner of the other semi between Australia and India on Saturday in the final a remarkable turnaround from the previous tournament just two years ago in South Africa when they finished ninthAs for Afghanistan they will head to the Coolidge Cricket Ground for the thirdplace playoffRain delayed the first of the two Super League semifinals at the Sir Vivian Richards Cricket Ground after England won the toss and chose to batOnce both sides were eventually able to take to the field in Antigua and Barbuda it was Afghanistan who made the stronger startJacob Bethell who lit up the quarterfinal tie with 88 against South Africa last week was trapped LBW by Naveed Zadran an early sign that England faced a difficult taskSkipper Tom Prest then joined vicecaptain Bethell in making an early departure reducing them to 256 as the Young Lions struggled to command with the batGeorge Thomas did steady the ship with an excellent 50 after a slightly nervy introduction at the crease only beaten by an excellent delivery from Noor AhmadAnd when William Luxton was clean bowled by Izharulhaq Naveed Prests team was five wickets down having barely put 100 runs on the boardHowever the rain came again to delay play for a further halfhour and led to revised conditions of 47 overs per sideEnglands backend partnership of 95 from George Bell and Alex Horton then managed to put a different dynamic on their innings The duo attacked the Afghanistan seamers fiercely which managed to top the final total up to 231The earlier interruptions from the weather meant Afghanistan had a revised DLS target to match this score and chasing their firstever ICC U19 Mens Cricket World Cup final they knew a good start was needed to seize control of the gameOpener Nangeyalia Kharote was unable to provide it when English seamer Josh Boyden claimed his wicket with just the third ball of the inningsBut Kharotes replacement Allah Noor smashed a huge six to get off the mark and quickly gave his team a platformThe 18yearold produced a marvellous knock which featured eight boundaries as the momentum of the semi swung back Afghanistans wayAlong with wicketkeeper Mohammad Ishaq the pair got their team past 90 with Noor making a valuable halfcenturyEnglands crucial breakthrough came after some wonderful fielding led to a runout for Ishaq with wicketkeeper Horton reacting quickly to a loose throw at the strikers endNoor remained stubborn but eventually went for 60 with Thomas Aspinwall claiming a vital wicket That set up a frantic finish that could have gone either wayThe 44th over for England appeared to have turned the game when two noballs inarow gifted their opponents eight runs before Abdul Hadi 37 no smashed a huge six to take them to 200 and tantalizing closeBut Ahmeds late flurry and a nerveless final over from Boyden carried England over the line to their first ICC U19 Mens Cricket World Cup final since 1998 in South Africa when they lifted the trophyThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever