England's first opponents prevail in warm-up

England’s first Under-19 World Cup opponents, Hong Kong, completed their preparations for the competition with victory over Canada in the final round of warm-up matches.

Hong Kong chased a target of 190 from 37.2 overs with four wickets in hand thanks to Mark Chapman and Ashish Gadhia’s 186-run sixth-wicket stand.

Alex Smith had earlier taken 3-21 in four overs to limit Canada to 189 for eight after half-centuries from captain Rustam Bhatti and Nitish Kumar.

England, who lost to hosts New Zealand by five wickets today, face Hong Kong at the Bert Sutcliffe Oval, near Christchurch, on Saturday.

England’s second Group A opposition, Afghanistan, lost to Zimbabwe by four wickets. The Asian nation could only muster 175 all out and Zimbabwe reached their target in 40.3 overs.

Defending champions India, England’s final group opponents, lost to Sri Lanka by seven runs in a significantly reduced encounter.

Sri Lanka mustered 163 for nine in 26 overs but managed to defend their total as India finished six wickets down.

As in yesterday’s warm-up matches, the sides batting first dominated: Australia saw off Bangladesh by 20 runs, South Africa defeated Pakistan by 10 runs, West Indies edged out Ireland by five runs and USA thrashed Papua New Guinea by 116 runs.