England 320 for 7 (Prest 93, Bell 57, Thomas 52, Sharma 3-51) beat Canada 214 all out (Johal 44, Boyden 4-44, Prest 3-38, Bethell 3-45) by 106 runs
England became the first team to confirm their spot in the quarter-finals of the main competition after their batters, led by captain Tom Prest, flexed their muscle to post an imposing 320 against Canada. That set up a comprehensive 106-win.
Prest then took three wickets with his right-arm offbreaks while Joshua Boyden, the left-arm seamer, picked up a four-wicket haul for the second game in a row.
Prest made 93 in 93 balls, an innings packed with innovative shots like the paddle and sweeps off seam bowlers. He crunched ten fours and looked all set for a century but was stopped by Canada legspinner Kairav Sharma, who got him lbw in the 37th over.
His 90-run second-wicket stand with George Thomas (52) set the base for a strong finish from England's middle and lower order. William Luxton hit two fours and two sixes to make a 32-ball 41, George Bell hit 57 in only 35 balls, and No. 8 James Sales crunched 23 off 18 deliveries.
Canada's bowling was decent in spells but missed the bite to cause any trouble, allowing England's batters to pick their spots. Sharma's legspin was the only standout, his wrong'un dismissing Thomas and his flipper removing Prest as he finished with 3 for 51. England scored exactly 100 runs in the last 10 overs to finish with 320 for 9.
The chase began with a rain delay that was short enough to ensure no overs were lost. Boyden, who took 4 for 16 against Bangladesh, used his swing-bowling skills to pick off Canada opener Siddh Lad in his opening spell. Anoop Chima (38) and Yasir Mahmood (25) then built a careful but solid partnership of 60 for the second wicket before Mahmood top-edged a sweep off a tossed-up Prest delivery.
Left-arm spinner Jacob Bethell then got among the wickets, getting Chima and Sharma lbw with balls that went with the arm. Prest trapped Arjuna Sukhu lbw too, to leave Canada reeling at 109 for 6 in the 32nd over.
Like in England's first game, offspinner Fateh Singh controlled the middle overs with his tidy bowling but had no wicket to show for it. This time, he conceded just 12 in his seven overs.
Canada's seventh-wicket stand proved difficult to break, as Ethan Gibson and Gurnek Johal Singh counterattacked, adding 74 in 11.4 overs to take Canada past 180. They negated England's three-pronged spin combination, but had no answer when Boyden returned with his left-arm seam and dismissed both with pinpoint yorkers. In between, he sent back Sheel Patel with a sharp caught-and-bowled.
Prest capped off a brilliant day by returning to the attack and getting last man Harjap Saini out stumped to finish with figures of 3 for 38.
South Africa 231 for 9 (Brevis 104, Miyaji 3-33, Murungi 3-58) beat Uganda 110 (Ategeka 29, Alder 2-13, Brevis 2-18, Mnyanda 2-24) by 121 runs
The versatile Dewald Brevis scored a century to set up a 121-run win over Uganda in South Africa's Group B match in Port-of-Spain.
Brevis followed up his 65 against India last week with a 110-ball 104 to lift South Africa to 231 for 9, after which their bowlers shared the spoils to bowl Uganda out for 110. Brevis struck 11 fours and one six. He found support only from captain George Van Heerden (36) in a 74-run third-wicket stand, and wicketkeeper Kaden Solomons (27), with the rest of the batters failing to make significant contributions. Juma Miyaji and Uganda captain Pascal Murungi took three wickets each to restrict South Africa to below 250.
However, the target of 232 was too much for Uganda. Fast bowler Aphiwe Mnyanda removed both openers, left-arm spinner Liam Alder removed Uganda's top-scorer Isaac Ategeka (29), and Brevis picked up two lower-order wickets. Four other South Africa bowlers shared a wicket each to finish the rout by the 34th over. Uganda could have finished with a sub-100 score if it wasn't for the 27 extras conceded by South Africa.
Afghanistan 200 (Safi 62, Ahmadzai 45, Singi 4-18, Kevau 3-23) beat Papua New Guinea 65 (Naveed 3-14, Nangyalai 2-5, Zadran 2-9, Noor 2-18) by 135 runs
Afghanistan began their U-19 World Cup campaign with a comprehensive win over Papua New Guinea, their spinners leading the way to bowl Papua New Guinea out for only 65 after being dismissed for 200 themselves.
Afghanistan recovered from 40 for 3 on the back of a 105-run fourth-wicket stand between the captain Suliman Safi, who struck nine fours in his 62, and Ijaz Ahmad Ahmadzai who made 45. That lifted them to 145 for 4, but Afghanistan only managed to add 55 for the loss of their last six wickets. Katenalaki Singi took 4 for 18 in only five overs for PNG.
However, figures of 3 for 14 from legspinner Izharulhaq Naveed and 2 for 18 from left-arm wristspinner Noor Ahmad wrecked PNG in their chase of 201. Seamer Naveed Zadran picked up 2 for 9, Nangyalai Khan took 2 for 5 and Bilal Sami took one wicket to ensure PNG's innings lasted only 20.5 overs.
PNG had ten single-digit scores with No. 8 Aue Oru being the highest contributor with 13.