England's ICC Under-19 World Cup report card will not make good reading on the plane home tomorrow, despite a brave effort against South Africa at Lincoln Green today.

A semi-final place is the prize for the Proteas after their 16-run victory, which came with 10 overs to spare on the last day of the Super League before the semi-finals begin on Sunday.

"We're very disappointed to lose our second close game in the space of a week," said England coach Paul Farbrace. England threw away their chance of a semi-final berth last Monday when losing to New Zealand after manoveuring into a winning position.

Consequently, the pressure created today by the need to win inside 40 overs (or was it 40.1 - nobody was quite sure) was too much, and Farbrace's men will be at home in the UK in time for Sunday lunch.

At that time South Africa will be readying itself to confront India, a team that "I'm not bothered about," according to Proteas coach Hylton Ackerman.

"I'm very confident playing India," said the former international. "I'm just glad we're not playing Australia!" Ackerman has already predicted an Australia-South Africa final for Saturday week.

For England the tournament has been one of errors at crucial times and lessons that need to be learnt.

For Ackerman, this was his team's worst performance of the tournament.

"We sneaked through with a poor display into the semi-finals," he said. "Both sides played poorly," he said. "The reason is they're 19 years of age and don't understand yet. That's why it's good to have tournaments like this."

Ackerman did not mince his words. "One or two players need to play for the team, not themselves," he boomed. The headmasterly figure cited Stephen Cook and Hashim Amla as star pupils who have yet to do the work he has set them.

The main task that everyone needed to master today was the law of the bonus point. England needed one, and for Ackerman, "England would have won if they hadn't have to have got the point."

Optimistically, England manager James Whitaker was about to send a message to his final pair telling them they could bat on until the end of the 41st over in pursuit of the bonus point winning runs when Tim Bresnan was bowled by man of the match Ryan Bailey.

Bailey (55 not out off 61 balls) and Ryan McLaren (30 not out off 41 balls) added 70 off 71 balls to get their team up to 212/5 off 50 overs. Thirty-five of them came from the last three overs to take the game away from England.

"In the last over we gave away seven or eight runs we could have stopped," said a frustrated Farbrace.

Chasing 213 in 40.1 overs or less to keep an interest in the tournament, England began lustily, but openers Kadeer Ali (44) and Bilal Shafayat (38) did not take their promising innings on.

Captain Nicky Peng and Shafayat went in consecutive balls after the first drinks break, when the few Barmy Army fans already in New Zealand were noisily sensing a textbook run chase from their team.

Slow left-armer bowler Ian Postman took both wickets, using some flight to produce lofted shots. He recovered from earlier punishment to end with four for 56. His other key wicket was that of Samit Patel, who, like Ali and Shafayat had just began to dominate before holing out to the spinner.

"Somebody in the top five has to get a score of 75-plus," emphasised Farbrace. "We haven't achieved that in this tournament."

"The killer blow was losing Bilal straight after Peng," he continued.

"We've had lots of talks about finishing. We haven't got enough finishers to win games," said the former county wicket-keeper.

"The key point is to find out about the kids that you've got and find who can cope under pressure."

England's youngsters failed under that pressure in the finishing school of the Under-19 World Cup this week, while South Africa, despite "my best player, my Graeme Pollock, Hashim Amla, not yet bothering the scorers," moving up a class into the final four and perhaps beyond.

© CricInfo