ICC T20 World Cup | Very Proud of How the Team Handled Tough Situations: Meg Lanning

An elated Australia captain Meg Lanning could not hold back her praise for her team that began the World Cup journey with a defeat to India before bouncing back in style and romping home to their fifth title, and first on home soil.

Lanning was particularly happy about how the team stuck together in the face of high expectations and difficult times up until the final, especially with injuries sidelining important players in the squad.

“I’m just really proud of this group of players and staff. We’ve had everything thrown at us, ups and downs. It was tough, definitely, especially after we lost that first game. There was a lot of expectation on us, inside and out. Definitely some tough times in there but we stuck with each other, had each other’s backs,” she said.

Australia were dealt with major blows when star all-rounder Ellyse Perry and pacer Tayla Vlaeminck were ruled out of the tournament and Lanning said the absence of the duo affected the team’s plans.

“Coming in they (the injured players) were a big part of our plans, we had to go to Plan B and C.”

Talking about the record turnout of 86174 at the iconic MCG, the most in a women’s cricket match, she said, “It has been massive, 86000 people at the MCG, I’ve never seen it before and didn’t think I’d be part of it in the middle.”

Player of the tournament Beth Mooney, who scored a scintillating unbeaten 78, said her team was aware of their shortcomings from their group stage loss against India and worked on executing their plans properly.

“I’m a bit lost for words. It has been an unbelievable tournament. The crowds have been great throughout the tournament,” Mooney said.

“Didn’t really do anything differently. We had some plans we didn’t execute in that first game. I think we stuck to our processes. We sort of knew what went wrong against India in the first game and we worked on our plans accordingly,” she added.