England Under-19s captain Will Rhodes has admitted his pride at his side’s third-placed finish at the World Cup.
The England youngsters responded from the agonising semi-final defeat to Pakistan with a thrilling one-wicket victory over Australia in the the play-off for third.
Ben Duckett shone with a superb century against the Aussies, while last-wicket pair Josh Shaw and Matt Fisher amazingly put on 34 in the final four overs to edge the side to victory.
And while Rhodes would have preferred to be celebrating winning the tournament, he revealed his delight at the team’s achievement.
He told ecb.co.uk: “It has been a great experience to captain the England Under-19s in the World Cup and beating full Test-playing nations along the way to reaching third place, an achievement that the players should be proud of.
“Balancing the captaincy with batting and bowling was quite tough at first, and the help I received from the more senior players in the team contributed to us playing better cricket as the tournament progressed.
"Beating India was the best match as they are a very good team, chasing down 220 on a tough pitch which suited the opposition was a great team effort and the celebrations at the end showed the morale within the squad.
"We are obviously disappointed that we did not win the World Cup (but) ending up in third place was a creditable performance. You dream as a kid to represent your country in a World Cup and then to be part of a team where everyone at some point stepped up, we should all be proud to get as far as we did."
Duckett was appearing in what is set to be his final tournament for the Under-19s and the Northamptonshire player ensured he made the most of his second World Cup experience.
"I wanted to approach this tour as a fresh start for the England Under-19s, was determined to play my own game and the shots I prefer,” he said.
“Scoring a century in what could be my last England Under-19s innings was nearly a perfect finish. Having said to some of my team-mates that it would be great to score 100 against Australia the previous evening, I made sure that I got there scoring singles to take me to three figures.
"Having played in the last Under-19s World Cup in Townsville, Northern Queensland, the conditions here were totally different and having to play against teams from the sub-continent who are more at home in these conditions made it a tough draw to reach the final.”