Australia has won its seventh women's ODI World Cup, beating England by 71 runs in the final on the back of a record-breaking innings by Alyssa Healy.
Healy notched the highest score in a women's or men's World Cup final, hammering 170 off 138 balls to help Australia reach 5-356 after being sent in to bat by England.
Backing up 129 in the semi-final against West Indies, Healy passed 500 runs for the tournament as she led Australia to the biggest total in a women's final.
The opener's gargantuan score eclipsed Adam Gilchrist's 149 in the 2007 men's World Cup final against Sri Lanka.
She was ably supported by Rachael Haynes (68) in a 160-run opening stand, and Beth Mooney (62) as they set England a seemingly impossible target of 357 runs to defend their ODI title.
Powerful England all-rounder Nat Sciver made a fist of the chase with a sensational 148 not out off 121 balls, but Australia took regular wickets to ensure she could not enjoy the sort of partnerships Healy had, with England eventually all out for 285.
It had all started so well for England, winning the toss and sending the Australia in to bat, but went downhill quickly thanks to Healy's heroics and some poor dismissals during their brave chase.
Reigning world champions England lost openers Danni Wyatt (4) and Tammy Beaumont (27) to Megan Schutt in-swingers early on, bringing Sciver to the crease.
The 29-year-old, who clattered an unbeaten 109 off 85 in a run chase against Australia in England's first match of the tournament, immediately boosted the run rate.
She was given out LBW while on 23, but she successfully overturned it on review, only to watch captain Heather Knight get trapped plumb by leg-spinner Alana King just two deliveries later.
Sciver and wicketkeeper Amy Jones scored 43 runs off the next 5.2 overs before Jones went for one big shot too many against Jess Jonassen, King taking a superb catch at mid-off.
King also bowled Sophia Dunkley around her legs for 23 and had Katherine Brunt stumped for 1 after bamboozling her with a ripping leggie in successive overs.
If England's hopes were not already extinguished, Tahlia McGrath thoroughly smothered them when she had Sophie Ecclestone trapped LBW and Jonassen had Kate Cross caught and bowled one over later.
Number 10 Charlie Dean put on a vital 65 off 53 with Sciver before she chipped a reverse sweep off Ash Gardner into the hands of Jonassen at backward point, bringing to the crease Anya Shrubsole, who chipped a catch to Gardner to officially end the tournament and kick off celebrations for Australia.
Healy and Haynes lay the platform
England bowled well early, restricting Australia to just 37 runs in the opening ten overs, however, after building a solid base, Australia's openers exploded.
The Healy-Haynes opening pair put on 216 runs in the semi-final against the West Indies, but the partnership in the final was almost over in the 21st over.
Both were dropped in the 40s, in the same Cross over — Haynes at backward point by Wyatt, and Healy at mid-wicket by Sciver.
Haynes reached 50 for the fourth time in the tournament one ball after Healy was dropped, and Healy also notched her half-century two overs later.
Having trailed Haynes in the scoring rate for most of their partnership, Healy put her foot on the accelerator and passed her batting partner as the boundaries began to flow.
Haynes was trying to slog one of her own when she eventually sliced an Ecclestone delivery to Beaumont behind point, uniting Healy with T20 opening partner Beth Mooney.
The new pair carried on in similarly dominant fashion, Healy adding the second 50 of her innings in just 38 balls to reach 100 at a run a ball.
Mooney also scored a half-century off just 38 balls, and Healy's third 50 was her fastest — off just 29 balls.
She brought it up her 150, becoming the first player to do so in a World Cup final, with a loft over cover for four.
Four more boundaries followed from Healy's bat before her time at the crease ended in the 46th over, when she chased a wide ball from Anya Shrubsole, and Jones completed a slick stumping.
Healy left the playing area to a standing ovation from the Christchurch crowd and congratulations from England players.
Australia elevated big-hitting Ash Gardner to number four but she could only add 1 before being run out, and Shrubsole added the wickets of Lanning (10) and Mooney in successive deliveries in her next over, as the Aussies looked for boundaries.
Ellyse Perry scored 17 off 10 in her return from injury and McGrath (8) was the other not-out batter as they helped Australia score 120 runs off the final 10 overs.
That late burst meant England was actually ahead of the game for much of their chase, but it proved to only be a mirage as they could not keep pace as the innings wore on.
Look back on how all the action unfolded in our live blog.
Key events
- Player of the tournament: Alyssa Healy
- Player of the match: Alyssa Healy
- AUSTRALIA WINS THE WORLD CUP!
- DEAN GOES! AUSTRALIA ARE ONE AWAY!
- HUNDRED FOR NAT SCIVER!
- ENGLAND LOSE THEIR SEVENTH! ECCLESTONE TRAPPED LBW!
- STUMPED! BRUNT IS OUT!
- BOWLED HER ROUND HER LEGS! ENGLAND FIVE DOWN!
- OUT! JONES HAS TO GO! ENGLAND ARE 4 DOWN!
- HEATHER KNIGHT IS OUT! PLUMB LBW!
- LBW! TAMMY BEAUMONT OUT LBW! MEGAN SCHUTT STRIKES AGAIN!
- BOWLED HER! DANNY WYATT IS OUT FOR 4 (5)!
- Australia sets England 357 to win
- ANOTHER ONE! SHURBSOLE IS ON A HAT TRICK!
- ANOTHER ONE FALLS! MEG LANNING GOES FOR 10 (5)
- RUNOUT! GARDNER GOES FOR 1 (2)
- OUT! ALYSSA HEALY OUT FOR 170!
- 100 FOR ALYSSA HEALY!
- ENGLAND GETS ITS FIRST WICKET HAYNES GOES FOR 68!
- Ellyse Perry named to play for Australia
- England win the toss, will bowl
Live updates
By Simon Smale
Australia beats England by 71 runs
By Simon Smale
Congratulations to Australia
OK, we'll wrap things up here.
Thanks so much for joining me throughout today's entertaining final, and thanks to Jon Healy for writing the wrap, which you can read above this blog right now.
Australia came into the tournament favourites and ironed that tag on with a thrilling performance featuring one of the best innings I've ever seen.
England's bowling was not accurate enough on what was a perfect batting pitch, and that showed in Australia's hefty score.
Nat Sciver was superb in a losing side, but needed at least one of the batters to hang around to make any impact in the contest.
Alyssa Healy may never play an innings as good as that in her career, in fact I will be stunned if we see too many more played like that ever. It was a pleasure to watch it.
I hope you enjoyed it as much as we did, we'll see you again soon.
By Simon Smale
Meg Lanning praises consistency
"I think we've been extremely consistent over a long period of time," the Aussie skipper says.
"We felt like we've waited for a hell of a long time
"To come out and perform so well throughout the whole tournament is pretty amazing and I think we deserved victory today.
"We came over with a squad mentaility. We had to have a number of people contributing," she says, crediting the players who missed out through injury.
"It was incredible. Some of those shots she was playing were ridiculous.
She says that being patient and building a base is something that the team have been
Lanning admits that she was nervous "the whole time" during the run chase and that Sciver's performance, on another day, would be a match-winning innings.
She praises England for their performance, as well as New Zealand, for putting the tournament on.
By Simon Smale
Heather Knight hails 'remarkable innings' from Alyssa Healy
The England skipper says that it was "probably a 50:50 decision at the toss," whether to bat or bowl.
"Credit to Australia, to bring that sort of performance in a world cup final is outstanding," she says.
"Alyssa, that was a remarkable innings, not really a pleasure to watch but I think it was one of the best innings that I've ever seen live.
"Credit to them, they were outstanding, and I guess we didn't quite find an answer.
"It was an amazing wicket.
"If we kept them just above 300 we were win with a real chance of chasing it down."
She credits Sciver's innings, describing at as "remarkable".
"Remarkable from Nat. Scoring all around the ground, it was a shame that we didn't have someone stay with her," she says.
She adds that Australia are very good at building partnerships and are just more ruthless.
By Simon Smale
'You probably couldn't ask for anything more': Healy
Alyssa Healy is speaking at the official presentation.
On her peaking at the right time, she simply says: "I'm 32, I've seen it all."
"Our team sets out to win events like this and you want to contribute to that, don't you?
"You probably couldn't ask for anything more to be put into bat and put a big total on the board.
"Personally, unbelievable, I never in my wildest dreams would I have thought I would be able to do a thing like that."
Despite top scoring for the tournament, Healy says that she didn't think she deserved both awards.
"I don't think I should receive this [the player of the tournament] award," she says.
"I only really turned up for the last two games, Rach [Haynes] did the bulk of the work for the group."
By Simon Smale
Player of the tournament: Alyssa Healy
By Simon Smale
Player of the match: Alyssa Healy
It couldn't be anyone else, could it?
By Simon Smale
Ellyse Perry: 'For Midge to do what she did was just amazing'
Perry says that watching Healy bat for her 170 was "just amazing".
She says the tournament was an incredible experience.
"To finish the way we did today was just awesome," she says.
She admits that she was pretty close to missing out with her injury, paying credit to the medical staff.
Perry says that she's proud of the way that Australia have dealt with pressure during the tournament.
"It hasn't all gone our way, we've been put under pressure at times and we've found our way through that," she says.
"That's a huge shift from 2017."
Audience comment by Mike
Thanks Simon, well blogged yet again - even more so considering your alliances
By Simon Smale
King praises team spirit
Alanna King, who took 3-63, says she's proud of the team.
"I'm just so proud of this team," she says.
"To win the way we did, to go 9-0 in this tournament, shows the character that this team is all about."
She seems quite incredulous that she's taken three wickets in the final: "I'd tell them [if they told me I would do this six months ago] that they were probably smoking something that they probably shouldn't."
She describes this Australian team as being a "big family" and that, as a new member of the squad this year, she could not be happier to be a part of it.
King says she had the popcorn out watching Alyssa Healy's innings, saying that she deserves all the plaudits.
Audience comment by AJ
What a game! What an incredible team! Undefeated!!!
By Simon Smale
'It's been a long, five-year wait': Healy
Alyssa Healy is speaking.
"That was a special game of cricket," she says.
"That was pretty special from our group."
"It's something that we've been working towards for a very long time, everyone's been talking about it for a long period of time to to get over the line was pretty cool.
Healy says that the mood at the break was "very professional".
"The job was half done. We knew we out a pretty good total on the board," she says.
"We knew their line up, they were peaking at the right time, you never know what's going to happen.
Full credit to the bowlers, they held their nerve Nat Sciver played an outstanding innings, I thought she might, perhaps get them over the line."
She adds that it was nice to get out and put a big total on the board after being put into bat.
"It's been along five-year wait," she says.
"We'll sit back and reflect on what's been a pretty amazing three months."
By Simon Smale
AUSTRALIA WINS THE WORLD CUP!
Anya Shrubsole went to chip the ball over mid off, but Ash Gardner ran back to make the catch!
Australia has won by 71 runs!
You have to feel for Nat Scriver, who ends on the losing side after scoring an unbeaten 148, but the night belongs to Australia, just as the previous five years of women's cricket have.
By Simon Smale
43rd over - Jonassen continues
FOUR! Can you believe it! A thick inside edge past leg stump and away for four to fine leg!
Sciver advances to make that a full toss but it will only be a single to midwicket, where Perry fields on the boundary.
Australia brings up the field, inviting the big shot.
Shrubsole cuts to point, no run.
By Simon Smale
The rest of the 42nd over - Gardner
A single first up for Shrubsole.
Sciver takes a single, they wanted two but wisely changed their minds.
Shrubsole fends to the off side to finish the over.
By Simon Smale
DEAN GOES! AUSTRALIA ARE ONE AWAY!
Oh Charlie Dean. She played so well for her 21 (24), but fell into the trap of getting too relaxed, playing the ball away off the reverse sweep, straight to Jonassen at backward point.
Australia are one wicket away, England are still 79 runs away with just 45 balls to play with.
