England beat India in U-19 World Cup

Wellington:

England allrounder Ben Stokes scored a century to set up a 31-run win over defending champions India at Lincoln on Thursday in the final pool match of the Under 19 cricket World Cup.

The group A victory means England will play the West Indies in their quarter-final on Saturday, while India will play Pakistan, the winner of group D.

England scored 246-8 in their 50 overs and a middle order Indian slump put the 2008 champions on the back foot and they were finally dismissed for 215 from 46.4 overs.

English left-arm pace bowler David Payne (3-40) and Stokes rocked the Indian middle order with three quick wickets as they slipped from 62-1 to 62-4 after getting off to a solid start.

Number 10 batsman Saurav Netrawalkar provided some hope for India scoring 28 from 30 balls until his dismissal brought the match to an end.

Man of the match Stokes finished with two wickets for England and had earlier provided the backbone of the English innings, scoring 100 off 88 balls.

Group B winners South Africa will play the Group C runner-up Sri Lanka in a quarter-final on Sunday, while hosts New Zealand will take on Australia.