'I think we deserved a victory today' - Skipper Lanning lauds consistent Australia

Australia bulldozed England in the final of the 2022 ICC Women's Cricket World Cup to lift their seventh overall trophy and first since 2013. 

Alyssa Healy set up the show and pulled off a splendid performance with the bat, scoring 170 runs off 138 deliveries. Megan Shutt and Alana King followed up with magnificent bowling spells and bundled England for 285 runs, clinching the title by 71 runs.

Australian skipper Meg Lanning lauded her side for delivering the goods consistently. Lanning asserted that Australia has been at its best for a long time now, and that has resulted in today's well-deserved victory.

"I think we have been extremely consistent over a long period of time. It's been a massive build-up to this tournament. It's been a long time coming. We felt like we have waited a hell of a long time. To come out and perform so well through the tournament, to be honest, it's pretty amazing, and I think we deserved a victory today," Lanning said as quoted by ESPNcricinfo.

Alyssa Healy, in the first innings, pulled the game far away from England's reach. Healy, along with Rachel Haynes and Beth Mooney, recorded mammoth partnerships and played a big hand in the finale win.

"Healy's knock was incredible. To do it in a World Cup final, I am probably not surprised; to be fair, she's done it before as well. To be able to come out and play so well, to play those shots she was playing was ridiculous and just to put the bowlers under pressure at the back-end was really important, and she set the base really nice. We've spoken as a batting group about being patient upfront and building a partnership to get to explode at the back-end, and that's what happened today," she added.

The 30-year-old further reflected upon the squad depth and stated how it helped Australia grab the silverware in the absence of some of their key players.

"Tay [Tayla Vlaeminck), Wolf [Georgia Wareham], and Soph [Sophie Molineux], big shoutout to you guys," Lanning talked about the three injured players. "There's some good depth within our squad. We've seen Alana King and Darcie Brown come in and dominate and really lift the team, to be honest. It's important to have some depth there. Injuries are unfortunately part of the sport, and we've been able to cover that this time around."

Natalie Sciver played a lone hand of 148 runs from England's side but, ultimately, fell short of the target as he received no support from the other end. Lanning revealed how tense she was when Sciver took the bowlers to the cleaners.

"I was [nervous] the whole way through, especially when Nat Sciver went there. She's an incredible player, played a really special innings today, and would have been a match-winning one on any other day. We know England would come hard at us. We expected a contest today and got one," she concluded.