Bears Around the World – Jacob Bethell in U19 World Cup Part 3

Hello Bears fans. The excitement is really building here in Antigua as all of us in the England Under 19s camp look forward to the World Cup final against India tomorrow. The past month has been an amazing experience but now it's coming down to the most important part.

It was great for us to come through the semi-final against Afghanistan, a tough game in which we were under pressure at times. From a point where we were 100 for five, to get to 230, with numbers six and seven scoring the majority of runs in a century partnership, showed our batting depth. Then to come back with the ball after they had got off to a good start was good to see.

It came out nicely for me with the ball. There was a point where me and Tom Aspinwall struck up a good partnership and strung together quite a few dot balls. I think we bowled seven overs for 15 runs in the middle of the innings so that brought us back into the game and put them behind the run-rate. Then Rehan Ahmed coming on and taking three-for in an over at the end won us the game.

It was a great feeling. Once that final ball was bowled, everybody was ecstatic, but until then there was no taking anything for granted. When Rehan took those three wickets we were in the driving seat but anything can happen in the last over. There was a lot of relief when we got to the fourth ball of the last over with 18 needed!

So we have got to the final and, of course, now we want to go the whole way and win the tournament. India are a strong team but so are we. They have a few key players that we have identified, but I think all the pressure is on them. We will go into the game playing our natural aggressive game. We have nothing to lose. We just need to stick to our basics and nail them as we have done throughout the whole tournament. Nothing changes for the final – hopefully with the same result: one more win and we can bring the World Cup home!

All the best. JAKE