“We don’t get tired of it,” Mooney, Player of the Match for her unbeaten 74 from 53 balls on a difficult batting floor at Newlands, stated. “Something we speak about as a group is making sure we’re always evolving along the way. We’ve seen in this tournament there are teams around the world getting better and better as the years go on and we know that we’re being hunted. People are looking at us for what we do and how we go about it, so certainly it won’t last forever, but we’ll enjoy it for as long as we can and hopefully we can keep piling up those trophies.”
Yes, Australia did snuff out the host nation’s dream of winning the title after changing into the first senior South African cricket group to attain a World Cup final, however that is what they have been right here for.
Sune Luus, the South Africa captain who instructed Australia throughout the on-area shows that they have been “really annoying”, even rolled her eyes when requested in her submit-match press convention about the undeniable fact that it was them on the podium but once more. But she acknowledged that the Australians had lengthy been setting the benchmark when it comes to professionalism, pathways constructions.
So while it will possibly really feel like the remainder of the world wants Australia to apologise for being so good (we all know they by no means, ever will) and thinks having a distinct winner can be good for the sport, Australia’s unmatched success is equally good for the sport in that it reveals the method. Their home construction and lengthy-established WBBL have been emulated elsewhere – notably in England and India, which holds its first WPL instantly after this match, in addition to in the West Indies with the Women’s CPL.
Beth Mooney: Every group is evolving at a fast tempo
And then Australia do one thing like Mooney’s dive at lengthy-on to save two runs from Nadine de Klerk with South Africa nonetheless 23 behind with solely three balls left in the match, and it is simple to see how they keep forward.
“The game’s never over till it’s over so I think that’s what keeps bringing us back,” Mooney stated. “We fought really hard against India. It was an exciting contest but we know if we’re half a per cent off here and there in T20 World Cups, you can lose the game – so for us it’s never boring. I think we’re always in the contest and always in the fight.”
Asked how she would coach a facet towards Australia, Mooney joked “just don’t turn up – it’s too hard, don’t bother going” to loads of laughter. Then she added: “I’ve played in a lot of teams – it probably starts within yourself more than anything, rather than worrying about what other people do. If I give too much away we might start getting beaten. But the good part about the game at the moment is every team is evolving at a rapid pace and the game’s evolving at a rapid pace too, so I’m really excited for what’s to come and the challenges that are ahead of us.
Alyssa Healy raised eyebrows in the lead-up to the final when she told ABC Sport in Australia that she had run Harmanpreet Kaur out in the semi-final not because Harmanpreet had been unlucky enough to get her bat stuck in the pitch short of her crease, as the India captain had contended, but because she hadn’t run fast enough or stretched far enough. It laid bare the contrast between a player capitalising on a small opportunity and one who, in Healy’s opinion, hadn’t.
Meg Lanning tops Ricky Ponting
Meanwhile, Lanning overtook Ricky Ponting as the captain with the most ICC titles, adding her fifth to the 2014, 2018 and 2020 T20 World Cup and 2022 ODI World Cup crowns. That followed her return from a five-month break from the sport.
No one was happier about Lanning’s comeback at the start of this year than Mooney, who was thrilled to have her coffee and “sport-day breakfast buddy again”.
“We’re fortunate, we have a extremely good pool of expertise in Australia, so it is nearly ensuring that we’re all the time trying to evolve and keep forward of the curve, which is changing into more and more troublesome as the sport continues to develop”
Australia coach Shelley Nitschke
“When Meg retires – hopefully not for a couple of extra years, hope you are listening Meg – she’ll go down as certainly one of the best leaders, not simply in cricket however in sport and simply typically as properly,” Mooney said. “She’s obtained an immense cricket mind. She’s cool, calm and picked up beneath stress and he or she’s obtained empathy as properly, she understands how folks really feel in sure conditions as a result of she’s been there earlier than and he or she’s skilled rather a lot as an individual and as a frontrunner and as a cricketer. Absolutely she’ll go down as certainly one of the best ever for our group and we’re very fortunate to have her.”
Nitschke, who won her first World Cup as a player in South Africa at the 2005 ODI tournament, has come full circle with this latest victory in Cape Town, but she’s nowhere near done and neither are her players.
“The truth is that we’re getting pushed and that is pushing us,” Nitschke said. “We have been enjoying South Africa right here of their first T20 World Cup final so the sport simply continues to develop, our problem is to evolve with it.
“It’s about continually looking at trends in the game, looking at where we can be better and just challenging our players to continually improve. We’re lucky, we’ve got a really good pool of talent in Australia, so it’s just about making sure that we’re always looking to evolve and stay ahead of the curve, which is becoming increasingly difficult as the game continues to grow. And we saw how South Africa played today so it’s a challenge but it’s one that we’re definitely up for.”
Rest of the world, take notice.
Valkerie Baynes is a normal editor, ladies’s cricket, at ESPNcricinfo