Bridgetown (Barbados), April 29: Thoroughly outplayed by Australia in Saturday’s final of the 2007 ICC World Cup at the Kensington Oval, Sri Lanka captain Mahela Jayawardene admitted that Australia deserved to be the champions.

"They had an amazing tournament. It is not easy to remain unbeaten for seven weeks and they did it in amazing style. Gilchrist played a terrific innings and in front of such cricket you cannot do much except wait for something to happen," he told reporters later. Jayawardene however, said he was happy that his team had made it to the final. "We had a decent tournament and we reached this far. In the final too, leaving aside Gilchrist’s innings, we could take have taken the match to the Aussies."

Jayawardene said that the chase had been on, but rain changed all that. "Had the score been around 240-250, it could have been chaseable but 281 was too much. The Aussies are inventing something new, finding new levels of cricket and it has become impossible for the others to catch them. They have been amazing. A great team."