New Delhi: England beat Afghanistan by 15 runs in the semi-final of the Under-19 cricket world cup and reached to final of the tournament. It was the first time in the last 24 years that England reached the final of the U-19 World Cup.
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’s favor when their opponents needed just 18 runs from the last ten balls.
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.
And when William Luxton was clean bowled by Izharulhaq Naveed, Prest’s team was 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.
(_Vinayak)
