Heather Knight has said she takes “a lot of pride” in her England side, despite their defeat by Australia in the World Cup final in Christchurch on Sunday after Nat Sciver hit an unbeaten century to take England to within 72 runs of their mammoth 357-run target.
“The character and the resilience in the group to turn it around after those first three games when we were in a pretty tough situation shows volumes about this group and the people that we’ve got in it, and the staff that we’ve got, to get here with a chance of winning,” Knight said.
“We can take a lot of pride in what we’ve done as a group – the way we’ve fought throughout the competition to be in this position, and the way we fought today.”
Knight labelled Alyssa Healy’s match-winning knock of 170 from 138 balls – the highest individual score by a player in a World Cup final – “outstanding, one of the best I’ve seen live”, and said her bowlers had found it “hard to shut her down”.
Healy, who was not part of the playing XI last time Australia won the tournament in 2013, said she was proud to have been able to contribute to the win.
“I ran drinks for the whole 2013 World Cup and we didn’t make the final in 2017, so for me this trophy means a lot,” she said.
“To have done what we’ve done over the last five years – the trophy in our hands is the final piece of the puzzle that needed to happen.”
England’s uneven performance across the tournament, following hot on the heels of their weak performance in the Ashes, will raise questions about the quality of the English domestic structure, which is still a way behind Australia’s fully professional set-up despite the success of the Hundred last summer.
But Knight described the current structure as being “in a good place”. “Things will only improve over the next couple of years, there’ll be a few more domestic contracts I imagine and a few more seasoned pros,” she said.
“It might take a little bit of time – Australia started their domestic set-up and the investment in the women’s game a little bit earlier than we did – but hopefully it will bear fruit in the next couple of years.”
Healy, meanwhile, stressed that a change in culture across the entire Australian playing squad after the disappointment of being knocked out by India in the 2017 semi-final was the key factor in their triumph. Since that occasion, Australia have not lost a one-day series, and last year they achieved a record-breaking 26-match winning sequence.
“I’m so proud of this group to be able to reinvent [ODI cricket],” Healy said. “We came together as a squad and said: ‘This is how we want to play our cricket from now on, and we’re going to be the best team in the world.’ For all 15 people in our squad to buy into that has been unbelievable.”
