ICC U19 Cricket World Cup 2012 News

Australia captain (C) Will Bosisto

Australia captain Will Bosisto felt India deserved to win the ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup final on Sunday.

Bosisto – who was named player of the tournament - scored an unbeaten 87 as his side posted a challenging score of 225-8.

But India - led by its captain Unmukt Chand, who hit 111 not out – won by six wickets as they reached their victory target with 14 balls to spare.

"India are a great side, I think they played better than us on the day and they deserved it," Bosisto said afterwards.

"We came here pretty confident against India on what looked like a pretty good wicket. We were happy to bat first and to post a total of 225 after losing some early wickets. We were pretty satisfied and we thought we could defend that.

"Getting an early wicket, we thought that put us right in the contest. Unmukt's innings was just a freak innings and sometimes you are going to get that in cricket against such talented opposition.

"It is really disappointing I think. Maybe we didn't help ourselves out with a few dropped catches and things like that but that is cricket."

It could have all been so different though.

Chand was dropped on 38 – by wicket-keeper Jimmy Peirson at full stretch – and then on 84 by Bosisto.

Smit Patel (62 not out) was also dropped by Peirson, on just two, but it was the Indian skipper's second life that paved the way for their victory.

At the time they needed 49 from the last 41 balls and Bosisto's failure to take a comfortable chance at mid-wicket gave India the boost they needed to claim victory.

"We dropped a few chances, I dropped Unmukt a bit later on, that would have made it interesting," Bosisto said.

"Looking back on it, it probably was (the match) but at the time, that wasn't my thought process. I think maybe our fielding wasn't as good as it has been throughout the tournament."

Australia also failed to bowl to their ability, with Bosisto describing the feeling of defeat as 'really disappointing'.

"From a team perspective it is annoying. We had a reasonable total and I think that should have been enough runs even on quite a flat batting wicket like it was," he said.

"Our bowling early, maybe (we) bowled a few too many four balls that they were just crunching through the covers. There was plenty of things that let us down today."

Despite the defeat, the West Australian – who scored 276 runs for the tournament, leading his side to victory in run-chases on four separate occasions – insisted his team could be proud of their efforts during the ICC Under-19 World Cup.

"We are obviously here to win and that didn't happen but I am pretty proud of the boys and the way we went about it. I think we can be really satisfied with how we have gone (this tournament)," Bosisto said.