England beat Afghanistan in a thrilling Under-19 World Cup semifinal by 15 runs to register their place in the summit clash of the tournament. In the rain-affected match, spinner Rehan Ahmed turned out to be the hero for the English team as he claimed three crucial wickets in the penultimate over to shift the momentum in his team favour when their opponents needed just 18 runs from the last 10 balls. It was the first time in the last 24 years when England reached the final of the U-19 World Cup.
Rain delayed the start of the semifinal clash and it strike again in the middle of the match too which forced it to reduce to 47 over per side. England skipper Tom Prest won the toss and elected to bat first against the Afghan side.
In-form opener Jacob Bethell, who scored 88 against South Africa in the quarterfinal, was trapped LBW by Naveed Zadran, an early sign that England faced a difficult task.
Skipper Prest then joined his deputy Bethell in making an early departure, reducing them to 2-56, as the Young Lions struggled to command with the bat.
However, George Thomas held his ground strong against the quality bowling attack with a 50-run knock. Noor Ahmed got the better of him on an excellent delivery to dismiss him caught and bowl.
And when William Luxton was clean bowled by Izharulhaq Naveed, Prest’s team were five wickets down having barely put 100 runs on the board.
However, the rain came again to delay play for a further half-hour and led to revised conditions of 47 overs per side.
England’s back-end 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 231.
Chasing the target, Afghanistan lost opener Nangeyalia Kharote on a duck as pacer Josh Boyden dismissed him on the third ball of the innings.
Allah Noor, who came out to bat at number 3 produced a marvellous knock, which featured eight boundaries as the momentum of the semi swung back the Afghanistan’s way.
Along with wicketkeeper Mohammad Ishaq the pair got their team past 90, with Noor making a valuable half-century. He smashed 60 runs off 87 balls, while Ishaq was dismissed on 43.
The 44th over for England appeared to have turned the game when two no-balls in-a-row gifted their opponents eight runs, before Abdul Hadi (37 no) smashed a huge six to take them to 200 and tantalising close.
But Ahmed’s late flurry and a nerveless final over from Boyden carried England over the line to their first ICC U19 Men’s Cricket World Cup final since 1998 in South Africa, when they lifted the trophy.
England will now face the winner of the semifinal between Australia and India on Saturday in the final. As for Afghanistan, they will head to the Coolidge Cricket Ground for the third-place playoff.
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