Sales on-song but England slip to defeat to India in Under-19 World Cup Final

A strong all-round performance from Northamptonshire teenager James Sales wasn't quite enough as England lost the Under-19 World Cup Final to India by four wickets.
Northamptonshire teenager James SalesNorthamptonshire teenager James Sales
Northamptonshire teenager James Sales

Saturday's final at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadum in Antigua marked England's first appearance in the final since 1998, when former Northants pair Graeme Swann and Stephen Peters helped them to their sole victory in the competition.

It was a difficult day for England, with Sales first help rescuing their innings with the bat, and then claiming two crucial wickets with his seam bowling, but Richard Dawson's side were beaten.

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England's batsmen endured a nightmare afternoon as they slumped to 91 for seven in the 25th over, with Sales then joining James Rew in the middle.

The pair set about rebuilding the innings and put on a superb 93 before Rew was dismissed for a brilliant 95 from 114 balls.

Sales sadly then quickly ran out of partners as he was left 34 not out as England were dismissed for what looked a below-par 189.

India looked to be cruising to victory as they eased to 95 for two, but then enter Sales who claimed two quickfire wickets to reduce them to 97 for four and put the game back in the balance.

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But it wasn't to be for England as Nishant Sindhu hit an unbeaten 50 to see his side home at 195 for six with 20 balls to spare.

Sales ended with figures of two for 51 from 7.4 overs.

Skipper Tom Prest was left to rue his side's batting collapse, but was still proud of his and his team-mates efforts in getting to the final.

"It's obviously pretty tough to take, losing in a final, but we've done amazingly just to get here," he told espncricinfo.com.

"It's taken 24 years to get to a final. I couldn't be prouder of the boys and all their efforts, right from the group stage.

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"We've put in some amazing performances, but unfortunately we couldn't just do one more."

"The way James Rew and James Sales came in, I think they put on close to a hundred.

"All it would have taken was one more partnership, really, earlier on in our innings, and if we had got to 230 it would have been really interesting."

Sales played in five of England's matches at the tournament, hitting scores of 23 not out and 34 not out in his two innings with the bat.

He also ended up claiming five wickets at 40 apiece.