CHAMPIONS SAVOUR SPECIAL MOMENT
SINGING the team song just before midnight in Cape Town on the pitch they won a third straight T20 World Cup on was how Australia celebrated a victory that put them on top of cricket’s high-achievers list.
Captain Meg Lanning and her team celebrated like they might never win another World Cup, which seems incredibly unlikely given the domination of a team that now holds both the T20 and ODI World Cups.
But Lanning knows the rest of the world is coming, and having scraped through some games in South Africa, including the semi-final against India, before triumphing over the hosts in the final, she said it was a victory worthy of an epic celebration.
“We stayed at the ground for most of the night to be honest, it was a pretty incredible venue to spend some time at,” Lanning said the day after the win. “You’ve got to try and savour these moments as much as you can. You never know when your next World Cup final might be. You might never get another chance. For the group to be able to win another World Cup, they‘re never easy to win.”
Four members of the World Cupwinning group – Alyssa Healy, Ashleigh Gardner, Darcie Brown and Megan Schutt – were named in the team of the tournament, with Gardner having already been named player of the tournament.
Lanning said she and the players knew that their incredible success had put a “target on our backs”, which made winning extra special.
“To be able to keep winning when we know we have targets on our back … to keep winning and keep taking some punches along the way I think is a really great achievement.”