Women's WC: 'I think we deserve the win,' a proud Australia captain Meg Lanning hails her side

Meg Lanning hailed her side, saying "I think we deserve the win tonight" after Australia Women defeated England by 71 runs to claim their seventh Cricket World Cup.

It was also Australia's third straight ICC trophy after they won the T20 World Cup in 2018 and 2020.

A record-breaking 170 from Alyssa Healy helped Australia post 356 for 5 in 50 overs. Lanning and Co dethroned the defending champions England by bowling them out in 43.4 overs. Middle-order batter Natalie Sciver top-scored for the English side with a fighting 148 off 121 deliveries. The next best individual score in the England team was Tammy Beaumont's 27 off 26 balls. This showed how dominating the Aussies were with both bat and ball in the 2022 World Cup final in Christchurch.

"We have been extremely consistent over a long period of time and to come out and perform so well throughout the tournament, I think we deserve the win tonight. We knew we had to have a number of people contributing which we had throughout the tournament, we had some young players come in and make an impact straightaway which is great for the team and great for the more experienced players to keep pushing them to get better.

Off the field we had great support from the coaching staff and support staff to get us to this point. It was incredible (Alyssa Healy's knock), to do it in a World Cup final. Some of those shots she was playing were ridiculous and I think she set the base really nicely and it is something we have spoken about a lot as a batting group, being patient upfront and building the platform to explode at the backend and that is what happened today," Lanning said at the post-match interview after the final on Sunday.

Meg Lanning: Nat Sciver played a 'special innings'

Australia captain Lanning also praised England's Sciver, whose century went in vain in England's loss.

"She (Nat Sciver) is an incredible player and played a really special innings, on any other day it would potentially be a match-winning one. We knew England would come hard at us and we expected a contest and we certainly got that," added Lanning.

Australia's spin duo of Alana King and Jess Jonassen shared six wickets between each other.

The 26-year-old bowler spinner Alana, who made her Australia debut earlier this year, played a crucial part in the final as she picked up three wickets and bowled at an economy of 6.40.

"There's some good depth in our squad. We have seen Alana King and Darcie Brown come in and dominate and lift the team, so it is important not to rely on one or two players. We will celebrate this one first, important to make sure to look back at this period and see how successful it's been because there's been a lot of hard work that has gone into it and hasn't been easy. There's been ups and downs through the whole thing, nice to be able to get to the end of this nice little block and be able to say we are World Cup champions.

The 30-year-old Lanning, who is one of the most successful Australian captains in their history, thanked England for the contest on Sunday.

"Thank you to Heather and England for the contest today, thanks to everyone at the ICC, New Zealand Cricket for getting this tournament up, it's been an incredible effort, lots of work going on behind the scenes. I want to thank our coaches and support staff who put so much time and effort behind the scenes to get us up and about to be able to play cricket. Well done to the team and we will certainly enjoy this one," added Lanning.