Australia are, by now, used to the celebrations making this their hat-trick title victory and winning the 50-over World Cup as well in 2013, but they didn't relax on the party mood after they thrashed England by six wickets with 29 balls remaining in Dhaka in the ICC Women's World T20 final on Sunday.
Meg Lanning, the 22-year-old Aussie skipper led from the front as she put on 44 runs off 30 balls to add to her tournament record of 257 runs in six innings at the strike rate of 158.64. Setting her personal feat aside, Lanning said it was her bowlers who set up the victory for the Southern Stars giving away only 105 runs as England struggled to get started with the bat before it was all over.
"We've got quite a young side, but we're experienced in tough situations, pressure situations," Lanning said. "We played really good cricket throughout the tournament and to win so convincingly in the final was great. I think the bowlers set it up for us, they started well, executed well. Really happy to be a part of it."
When asked about her contribution to the team after taking over as captain when Jodie Fields stepped down after the 2013 World Cup victory, Lanning said: "It came as a surprise initially and I knew I had to step up quickly. It's something I've enjoyed. I've had a lot of support around me. I'm thankful to our coach Cathryn Fitzpatrick and all my teammates for backing me throughout. There's no doubt, I still have a lot to learn, but this has been a fantastic experience."
Australia had come to the tournament after a mixed summer - losing the Ashes at home and winning the shorter tournaments. However, the Aussie men had an illustrious summer turning everything to gold, but they couldn't manage even a top-four finish at the world event in Bangladesh. Lanning, though hoped the men would sometime soon get their hands on the only silverware they haven't touched, she also knew that Australian cricket had very little to complain about.
"We'd love to see the men doing well. They've just had a great summer," Lanning added. "It feels good that we have been able to top that off with the World T20. Australian Cricket is in a happy place at the moment."
In other news, England continued their disappointed run at recent world events handing over the victory to archrivals Australia without much of a fight to boast of. Skipper Charlotte Edwards rued the repeat of the 2012 World T20 in Sri Lanka.
"We knew they were a big threat with the bat. But when you are chasing 105, you can come out and play like the way they did," Edwards said. "A total like that is never going to win you a World Cup final. I think they bowled exceptionally well. We have to accept we didn't have any answers with bat or ball. They're deserving champions."
Now, here's something for stats. England haven't managed to hit even a single six in the entire tournament, while Australia managed 18. "We've won a lot of T20 games without hitting many sixes, but we have to admit, it is something our coaches will look at once we get home," Edwards said. "Other teams have more power aspect to their game. We need to reassess that, but that's not the reason why we lost. We came into the game really confident. We won two Ashes series, but our young side just didn't turn up today. I'm not going to look too deep into it."
Edwards has captained England since 2006 and led the team in two consecutive Ashes victories. The 34-year-old was motivated enough to continue the search for victories and didn't hint any plans of retirement.
"I'm enjoying my cricket as much as I have done," Edwards added. "There's some big World Cups coming up, hopefully 2017 in England, which is something that's really motivating me to play on. I'm really enjoying it, we've had some young players out here who've really, really improved. So I'm not going to be too downbeat. Yes, it is disappointing not to win here, but we've had a great winter and you can't take that away from us. Would have been great to win this as well but I'm motivated as ever."
