By Dave Clark
England slipped to their third straight defeat at the hands of Pakistan in the final group game of the Under-19 Tri-series.
The two sides were already guaranteed to meet again in Sunday's final after hosts the United Arab Emirates won just one of their six group games.
But England will have to hope for a reversal of fortunes in Dubai after Pakistan maintained their perfect record with a 90-run victory.
Jonathan Tattersall affected two run-outs as England restricted Pakistan to 229 for eight from their 50 overs, with Luke Wood's 2-26 the pick of the bowling figures, but there were five dropped catches in the innings.
England's reply looked to be going well as Tattersall and Surrey's Dominic Sibley took the score to 63 for one in the 19th over, but the former was, ironically, run out to spark a collapse.
Sibley fell three overs later to Zia-ul-Haq for 39, and that remained England's top score of the innings as the last nine wickets fell for just 76 runs.
Left-arm spinner Kamran Ghulam was England's chief destroyer, finishing with figures of 4-18 from his 8.5 overs.