England U19s defeated Afghanistan by nine wickets and have qualified for the quarter-finals of the Under-19 World Cup.

ENGLAND CRICKET BOARD

Picture by ICC in NZ - for SNNI

Spinner Danny Briggs (Hampshire) earned man of the match honours after returning figures of 3-15 as Afghanistan were bowled out for 126. Briggs was well supported by Leicestershire’s Nathan Buck (3-18) and skipper Azeem Rafiq (2-29).

England won the toss and put Afghanistan in to bat and it was not long before the pace of Buck proved too much for their top order. Buck claimed the first three wickets of the match with Javed Ahmadi, Shir Shirzai and Noor-ul-Haq all falling to sharp catches as Afghanistan slumped to 10 for 3 after eight overs. After a menacing start with the ball Buck then featured in England's fourth wicket, taking a neat catch to dismiss Anwar Anwari off the bowling of Ben Stokes to break up a 41-run stand.

Rafiq (Yorkshire) then stepped in to claim the next two Afghan wickets, the first being that of Hashmatullah Shaidi, the talented 15-year-old batsman adjudged lbw after scoring a promising 41. New batsman Zakiullah Zaki lasted just four deliveries before being cleverly stumped by wicketkeeper Jos Buttler off the bowling of Rafiq. With Afghanistan reeling at 79 for six it was the spin of Briggs that dismantled the Afghan lower-order, the off-spinner taking the next three wickets before having a hand in running out the final batsman in the 48th over.

England's openers wasted no time in setting after the target of 127 for victory with both Yorkshire's Joe Root and Gloucestershire's Dent scoring freely. England suffered a setback when Root was dismissed for 25 after being caught in the gully off the bowling of Ayub Khan. But Hampshire's James Vince continued on from his man-of-the-match performance against Hong Kong by scoring at a run a ball and helping England reach 100 from 127 deliveries. Dent reached his 50 from 64 balls and Vince finished on 47 not out as England convincingly reached Afghanistan's total in the 26th over.

England's next match on Thursday is against India, the second team to have qualified for the quarter finals.

England U19s coach Mark Robinson said: "I thought today we were vastly improved in our performance compared to the Hong Kong match, the opening spells of the four seamers were very impressive. We put the opposition under a lot of pressure which was slightly different to the Hong Kong match as we were dealing with a flat wicket today. From a batting point of view it was just a really clinical performance.

"We expect India to be very enthusiastic, very noisy and very competitive. They will be very good at hitting the ball into less conventional places so we know they're going to put us under pressure but we've got some good players. It's the sort of game you want to play in, you want to be put under pressure and we're expecting a good contest."