Bears Around the World – Jacob Bethell in U19 World Cup Part 2

Hello Bears fans. I hope you are all keeping safe and well.

Well, here in Antigua, tomorrow we face Afghanistan in the semi-finals of the Under 19s World Cup and the feeling in the England camp is really good. We have played some good cricket to get this far in the tournament and there is a lot of confidence around the squad.

Having said that, we know that we have got to make sure we keep our standards very high. Afghanistan are a good side and have reached the semi-finals by playing some very good cricket. They played brilliantly to knock out Sri Lanka in the quarter finals so, while we will be favourites, we are taking nothing for granted. We have just got to play our best cricket and hopefully  make it through to the final.

We had a very satisfying win over South Africa in the quarter finals. To chase down a score of 200-plus against such a good side with almost 20 overs to spare was a statement of how we want to play our cricket.

I was pleased with my innings, I was seeing it well and everything was hitting the middle of the bat so it is always nice to have a day like that. Some nice things were said and written about my innings and, of course, it is good to showcase what I can do and get some praise for it, but that changes nothing about how you approach the next game. You still go out there and play the same game with the same game plan and look for the same results. It’s all about playing the team in front of you and trying to do your best.

Hopefully we will have a lot of England fans cheering us on in the ground again tomorrow. Against South Africa, there was a really good support group behind us. I think everyone on holiday in Antigua at the moment came along to watch so that was really nice to have a couple of hundred England fans behind us.

We have got good momentum behind us as a team and a squad, so it’s a question of taking that into tomorrow and hopefully making it through to the final.

JAKE