England beat Afghanistan to enter U-19 World Cup final, end 24-year wait
North Sound (Antigua)(PTI): Fancied England kept their nerve to reach the ICC U-19 World Cup final after prevailing over Afghanistan by 15 runs in an exciting last-four clash here, ending a 24-year wait for the side.
Spinner Rehan Ahmed became the hero for the Young Lions, taking three wickets in the penultimate over at a crucial point when their opponents needed just 18 runs from the last 10 balls on Tuesday.
It was a remarkable turnaround for England from the previous tournament just two years ago in South Africa when they finished ninth.
As for Afghanistan, they will head to the Coolidge Cricket Ground for the third-place playoff.
England end long wait to return to final
Rain delayed the first of the two super league semi-finals at the Sir Vivian Richards Cricket Ground after England won the toss and chose to bat.
Once both sides were eventually able to take to the field here, it was Afghanistan who made the stronger start.
Jacob Bethell, who lit up the quarter-final tie with 88 against South Africa last week, was trapped LBW by Naveed Zadran, an early sign that England faced a difficult task.
Skipper Tom Prest then joined vice-captain Bethell in making an early departure, reducing them to 2-56, as the Young Lions struggled to command with the bat.
George Thomas did steady the ship with an excellent 50 after a slightly nervy introduction at the crease, but was later beaten by a fine delivery from Noor Ahmad.
And when William Luxton was clean bowled by Izharulhaq Naveed, Prest's team were 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. England's back-end partnership of 95 from George Bell and Alex Horton then managed to put a different dynamic on their innings.
The duo attacked the Afghanistan seamers fiercely which managed to lift the final total to 231.
The earlier interruptions from the weather meant Afghanistan had a revised DLS target to match this score and chasing their first ever U-19 World Cup final, they knew a good start was needed to seize control of the game.
Opener Nangeyalia Kharote was unable to provide it when English seamer Josh Boyden claimed his wicket with just the third ball of the innings.
But Kharote's replacement Allah Noor, smashed a huge six to get off the mark and quickly gave his team a platform.
The 18-year-old produced a marvellous knock, which featured eight boundaries as the momentum of the semifinal swung back Afghanistan's way.
Along with wicketkeeper Mohammad Ishaq, the pair got their team past 90, with Noor making a valuable half-century.
England's crucial breakthrough came after some wonderful fielding led to a run-out for Ishaq with wicketkeeper Horton reacting quickly to a loose throw at the striker's end.
Noor remained stubborn but eventually went for 60, with Thomas Aspinwall claiming a vital wicket. That set-up a frantic-finish that could have gone either way.
The 44th over for England appeared to have turned the game when two no balls in a row gifted their opponents eight runs, before Abdul Hadi (37 not out) smashed a huge six to take them to 200.
But Ahmed's late flurry and a nerveless final over from Boyden carried England over the line to their first first U-19 World Cup final since 1998 in South Africa, when they lifted the trophy.
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TikTok shuts down as US ban takes effect
Houston: TikTok’s app effectively shut down in the US, just hours before a law banning the popular video-sharing platform was set to go into effect. The app was shut down on Saturday.
“A law banning TikTok has been enacted in the US Unfortunately, that means you can’t use TikTok for now,” a message reads when American users open the app.
“We are fortunate that President Trump has indicated that he will work with us on a solution to reinstate TikTok once he takes office. Please stay tuned!”
While the Biden administration dismissed TikTok’s shutdown threat as a "stunt" and handed enforcement to the Trump administration, TikTok maintained that without clear assurances, it had no choice but to suspend its services in the US.
An internal email to employees stated that President Trump has expressed his intention to work on a solution to restore TikTok once he assumes office on January 20th. TikTok assured teams are working to resume services as soon as possible.
On Saturday evening, a warning appeared in both TikTok and CapCut apps at 9 PM Easten time:
"We regret that a US law banning TikTok will take effect on January 19th, forcing us to temporarily suspend our services. We’re working to restore our service in the US as soon as possible. Thank you for your support. Stay tuned."
By 10:30 PM ET, users were blocked from accessing both apps, with TikTok displaying a message that the app "isn’t available right now," but expects resolution under President-elect Trump.
It comes after days of speculation and confusion over the platform’s future.
The Supreme Court on Friday unanimously upheld the divest-or-ban law, which gave TikTok’s China-based parent company ByteDance until Sunday to divest from the app.
The law directed Apple and Google to remove the service from app stores. It also required web-hosting firms, including TikTok's back-end cloud provider, Oracle, to stop supporting the app or face penalties that could reach into the billions of dollars, NPR reported.
Trump said Saturday that he would most likely give TikTok a 90-day extension.
“The 90-day extension is something that will be most likely done, because it’s appropriate. You know, it’s appropriate. We have to look at it carefully,” Trump said in a call with “Meet the Press” moderator Kristen Welker. “It’s a very big situation.”
The law, which passed Congress with wide bipartisan majorities and was signed by President Biden in April, allows the president to provide a 90-day extension, as long as progress is being made toward a divestiture.
Following Friday’s Supreme Court decision, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew thanked the president-elect for his commitment to finding a solution to keep the app accessible in the US, Chew who met with Trump at Mar-a-Lago last month, is set to attend Monday’s inauguration, the Hill reported.
While the app’s message and Trump’s remarks suggest the app could be revived in the US soon, it remains unclear exactly what that would look like and how long a divestiture deal could take to hammer out.
JUST IN - TikTok officially goes offline in the US. pic.twitter.com/QpJU97grSh
— Disclose.tv (@disclosetv) January 19, 2025
