HARARE, Zim­bab­we – West In­dies were of­fi­cial­ly elim­i­nat­ed from semi­fi­nal con­tention at the ICC Men’s Un­der-19 Crick­et World Cup af­ter Sri Lan­ka de­feat­ed South Africa in their Su­per Six, Group 1 en­counter on Thurs­day.

The Windies’ on­ly hopes of ad­vanc­ing to the fi­nal four hinged on both Sri Lan­ka and Afghanistan suf­fer­ing heavy de­feats in their fi­nal match­es, af­ter they end­ed the Su­per Six phase on four points.

How­ev­er, led by a knock of 117 from open­er Vi­ran Chamu­ditha, on Fri­day, Sri Lan­ka reached 265 for five in 46 overs, eas­i­ly over­haul­ing South Africa’s to­tal of 261 for sev­en at the Queens Sports Club.

De­spite the re­sult, Aus­tralia and Afghanistan ad­vanced to the semi­fi­nals from Group 1 af­ter the lat­ter thumped Ire­land by 191 runs on Fri­day.

Faisal Khan scored an im­pres­sive 163, while Mah­boob Khan made 89, to lead Afghanistan to a for­mi­da­ble 315 for sev­en in their 50 overs at the Harare Sports Club.

Ire­land was then bun­dled out for 124 in 40.4 overs, boost­ing Afghanistan’s net run rate (NRR).

While both Afghanistan and Sri Lan­ka end­ed on six points, the for­mer qual­i­fied with a su­pe­ri­or NRR of +1.725 com­pared to Sri Lan­ka’s -0.113.

Fri­day's Sum­marised Scores

South Africa vs Sri Lan­ka

South Africa 261/7 (Jorich Van Schalk­wyk 116, Ad­naan La­ga­di­en 46; Vi­g­nesh­waran Akash 4-46) lost to Sri Lan­ka 265/5 in 46 overs (Vi­ran Chamu­ditha 110, Senu­ja Weku­nago­da 48; Corne Botha 2-37) by five wick­ets.

Eng­land vs New Zealand

Eng­land 234/7 in 50 overs (Ben Mayes 53, Caleb Fal­con­er 47; Sne­hith Red­dy 2/28) beat New Zealand 169 in 38.5 overs (Sne­hith Red­dy 47; Man­ny Lums­den 5/17) by 65 runs

Afghanistan vs Ire­land

Afghanistan 315/7 in 50 overs (Faisal Khan 163, Mah­boob Khan 89; Reuben Wil­son 3/52) beat Ire­land 124 in 40.4 overs (Marko Bates 34; Ab­dul Az­iz 3/21) by 191 runs

(CMC)