For the first time in 24 years, England reaches the U19 World Cup final.

England reached their first ICC U-19 World Cup final since 1998 after registering a 15-run win over Afghanistan in a thrilling semi-final on Tuesday in Antigua.

England won the toss and elected to bat first. With the overcast condition at the Sir Vivan Richards stadium the dangerous England opener Jacob Bethell was trapped LBW by Naveed Zadran. In response to that early setback, captain Tom Prest and George Thomas produced fast runs against Afghanistan’s medium pacers; they pushed their side to 56 on the powerplay before Prest fell for a quickfire 17.

With his half-century including two sixes and four fours, Thomas continued to open the scoring, however, the Afghan spin trio of Noor Ahmad, Izharulhaq Naveed, and Nangeyalia Kharote appeared to take back control of the game in the middle overs, taking four wickets between them and proving extremely difficult to bat out. When Rehan Ahmed was dismissed for 16 by Naveed Zadran for 136/6 in 35.1 overs, England was in serious trouble. A brief rain shower saw the game cut to 47 overs per side. It was then England’s 95-run partnership from George Bell and Alex Horton which brought a different dynamic to their innings. As England posted a target of 231 runs.

In reply to England-scored Afghanistan opener, Nangeyalia Kharote was bowled for a duck off the third ball of the innings. With Mohammad Ishaq (43) and Allah Noor (60) adding 93 runs for the second wicket, Afghanistan built a strong platform to give them a fighting chance of chasing down the target.

With 19 required off the final two overs and the well-set Hadi and Ahmad at the crease, Afghanistan seemed well on the way to winning the match. But bowler Rehan Ahmed had some different plans as he took three wickets to win the match for England. England defeated Afghanistan by 15 runs to book their place in the final. England reaches their first U19 World Cup final in 24 years.