'We were prepared but couldn't execute,' says Saharan on losing U19 World Cup 2024 final to AUS

Australia Under 19 team defeated India Under 19 team by 79 runs in the ICC U19 World Cup 2024 final.

Australia U19 beats India U19 (credit: Twitter)

New Delhi: The Hugh Weibgen-led Australian team defeated Uday Saharan's Indian cricket team by a huge margin of 79 runs to win the Under-19 Cricket World Cup at the Willowmoore Park in Benoni on February 11. The Australian team won their fourth U19 World Cup title and now have the second most in history after India, with five.

Reacting to the loss, Indian captain Uday Saharan, who finished the tournament as the top scorer, said they were prepared but could not execute their plans on the field properly. He said: “I'm proud of the boys, they played really well. Showed good fighting spirit throughout the tournament. We played a few rash shots today, but didn't spend any time in the middle. We were prepared, but could not execute the plans. Learned a lot from this tournament, learned a lot from the support staff and even during the matches. We will try to keep learning and getting better.”

After #WTC23 And #CWC23Australia completes the hat-trick with #U19World Cup 2024 pic.twitter.com/Y6cmaLOTu0

— ICC (@ICC) February 11, 2024

This is India's third consecutive defeat against a team from Australia in an elite tournament organized by the ICC, after the finals of the 2023 ICC World Test Championship and the 2023 ICC Men's Cricket World Cup.

This is Australia's fourth title in the ICC Men's U19 Cricket World Cup, adding to the titles they had previously won in 1988, 2002 and 2010. Five-time winners India finished runners-up for the fourth time in their ninth appearance in the final .

Pacer Mahli Beardman and off-break bowler Raf MacMillan claimed three wickets apiece for 15 and 43 runs respectively, while Callum Vidler scalped two wickets for 35 runs in 10 wickets as India, chasing a target of 254, were bowled out for 174 in 43.5 overs. losing their first match in the event.

Australia dominated in all three departments of the game as they recovered from a poor start to score 253/7 in 50 overs thanks to Harjas Singh top scoring with 55, while Weibgen, Harry Dixon and Ollie Peak contributed with important years' 40.