By Chris Rew (Father of James Rew)
The 2022 Under 19 World Cup was eagerly anticipated after nearly two years of disruption to youth international cricket fixtures caused by the pandemic. Luckily, the tournament, held in the West Indies in January / February 2022 was relatively unaffected by Covid, although several teams lost a few players to isolation and Canada had to leave the plate tournament early when nine of their squad tested positive. The ICC, however, did a magnificent job of organisation in testing circumstances.
From a Somerset perspective, there were three representatives in the squad, Sonny Baker (fast bowler), James Rew and George Thomas (both top order batsmen). What a testament to the work being done by the Somerset Pathway, Academy and Second XI Coaches. Unfortunately Sonny Baker, the team’s main strike bowler, suffered a back injury in a warm up game and had to return to England.
England had managed to fit in two warm up series in late 2021, home against the West Indies (won 4-2), and away against Sri Lanka (lost 2-3).
So onto the West Indies and a squad of 15 young players assembled in St Kitts for the group games, against Bangladesh (the reigning under 19 World Champions), Canada and the UAE.
The Group games were won quite comfortably, with Bangladesh being dismissed for 97 in the first game, England U19s chasing this down in 25 overs. In the second game England amassed 320 -7 against Canada (with George Thomas scoring 52 ). Canada reached a creditable 214 in reply. In the final group game England U19s posted a daunting 362-6 in 50 overs against UAE, with their captain (Hampshire’s Tom Prest) scoring 154no. UAE being restricted to a score of 173 in reply.
Going through to the Finals stage in Antigua as Group winners, England were drawn against South Africa under 19s in the quarter final. Four wickets from Leicestershire’s Rehan Ahmed helped restrict South Africa to 209, which was chased down in 31.2 overs, helped by a blistering 88 off 42 balls by Warwickshire’s Jacob Bethel. A more tense semi final followed – England batted first and reached 231-6, including a half century from George Thomas. Although seemingly cruising to victory with five overs to go, tight fielding and well taken catches from England halted the Afghanistan reply at 215-9,15 runs short.
This brought England to the Final at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium to face a strong Indian U19 team. England batted first, and were in trouble at 61 for 6 after Indian seamers Ravi Kumar and Raj Bawa ploughed through the top order . However, a gritty 95 from Somerset’s James Rew (aided by 34no from Northants’ James Sales) lifted England to a total of 189. Although there were moments during India’s reply where it looked possible that England might defend this total, India paced their reply perfectly and reached the target with two overs to spare.
Although England, as runners up, failed to win a trophy last won by the 1998 England under 19 world Cup team, they kept us all on the edge of our seats until the final moments of the tournament. Every member of the team contributed with bat or ball at some stage during the competition, with a very high standard of fielding throughout. Behind the scenes the England U19 squad were excellently coached by Richard Dawson and his team whilst the West Indies Cricket Board were magnificent hosts.