Pakistan lost to England by five runs in a gripping climax to Super League Group 2 of the Under-19 World Cup at the Fatullah District Stadium in Bangladesh on Friday.

The defeat means that Pakistan finished second in the group and will face neighbours India in the semi-final on 29 February.

England finished with a maximum six points from three Super League matches and will face West Indies in the second semi-final. For the third match in a row the major contributor to the victory was captain Alastair Cook.

The skipper followed back-to-back unbeaten centuries with 87 vital runs against Pakistan after his side had been put into bat.

Cook and Steven Davies provided England with a solid platform. They had 131 runs on the board when Davies was second man out for 53, leg before wicket to Riaz Afridi.

Instead of building on this platform, England rapidly collapsed with Afridi being the chief destroyer.

The paceman also trapped Cook leg before wicket for 87 and bowled three of the England lower order batsmen to finish with 5 for 42 from 10 overs.

After their promising start, England were all out in the 50th over for 196.

Pakistan had not been troubled in any of their previous matches and the England total looked to be too small a target to defend against their in-form batsmen.

But England's seamers made early inroads and Pakistan were reduced to 56 for 4 and then 118 for 8.

Zulquarnain Haider lead a spirited fightback, clubbing 44 from 41 balls to set up a thrilling climax. Then with 14 balls remaining and only six runs required for victory he was caught by Davies off the bowling of Samit Patel and England scraped home.

Cook has now scored over 300 runs in England's three Super League victories and was pleased with the innings that earned him the man of the match award.

"I was very happy to get in the runs again today and it was a good day all round," said Cook.

"We didn't get as many runs as a team as we would have liked but we bowled well and fielded well and it is great to be in the semi-finals."

Brief Scores:

England Under-19: 196 all out in 50 overs (A Cook 87, S Davies 53, R Afridi 5-42, A Imran 3-45).

Pakistan Under-19: 190 all out in 47.4 overs (Z Haider 44, S Qadir 37, A Harrison 3-24, T Bresnan 3-33).