Women’s CWC: Australia captain Meg Lanning lauds her side for ‘well deserve victory’ over England

Christchurch [New Zealand], April 3 (ANI): Australia captain Meg Lanning said that her side deserved a victory after being extremely consistent in the tournament as they clinched their seventh ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup crown beating England by 71 runs here at Hagley Oval, Christchurch on Sunday.
The Australian bowlers did a splendid job for Australia to bowl England out for 285 after Alyssa Healy’s sensational 170 had helped them to a score of 356/5 to win the World Cup for the record-extending 7th time.
“I think we have been extremely consistent over a long period of time. It’s been a long time coming. I think we deserved a victory today. We came over with a mentality of a number of different people contributing. We’ve had a number of young players coming in and contributing. Off the field we have had the support staff helping us to get to this stage,” said Australia captain Meg Lanning in a post-match presentation.
The brilliant display of batting by Alyssa Healy, Rachael Haynes and Beth Mooney gave Australia an upper hand over England in the first innings of the summit clash of the ongoing ICC Women’s ODI World Cup.
Healy played a brilliant knock of 170 while Haynes and Mooney scored 68 and 62 runs, respectively, to take Australia’s total to 356/5 in the first innings. Healy not only compiled her own highest ODI score in smashing 170 from just 138 deliveries against England but also registered the biggest score by a man or woman in a World Cup decider.
“Healy’s knock was incredible. To do it in a World Cup final, I am not surprised, she’s done it before as well. We’ve spoken about being patient at the start before exploding and that’s what happened. I was nervous with Sciver batting. She’s an incredible player and would have been a match-winning one on any other day. Tay, Wolf and Soph, big shoutout to you guys. Brown came in and lifted our team with her performances,” she added.
Lanning praised England captain Heather Knight and her team for giving a tough competitive game, saying, “We’ll celebrate this one first. We have not looked ahead too far to be honest. It hasn’t been easy but it is nice to be able to get to the end of this block and say we are the champions. Thanks to Heather and the team, we knew it would be a competitive game. Thanks to the iCC, our coaches and support staff. Appreciate all that you do and to the team, well done and we’ll celebrate and enjoy this.” (ANI)