2 August 2000 - England's opponents in their semi-final of the Costcutter under-15 World Challenge at Chelmsford on Saturday will be Pakistan, who finished runners-up in group B in spite of their match against Zimbabwe being abandoned. The other semi-final, which will be staged at Hove next Tuesday, will be between South Africa and West Indies, who go through on superior run rate after their match against India at Eton was tied yesterday.

England left out three key players in Tim Bresnan, Alastair Cooke and Chris Goode, to give opportunities to others who had not played in the tournament hitherto. This policy, and a decision to change their batting order around with the high-scoring Samit Patel coming in down the order, almost back-fired. Holland, whose target was revised under the Duckworth/Lewis method to 141 off 35 overs, fell only 10 runs short of victory. The last pair, Reinder Lubbers and Daniel Voskamp, added 31 for the last wicket but failed to score the required 13 off the last over.

South Africa, who were also assured of a semi-final place, were unable to complete their final group B match against Zimbabwe. They will play the runners-up to England in group A, West Indies, who tied with India. West Indies needed two off the last ball at Eton in a match that also required the application of Duckworth/Lewis.