Australia beat England by seven wickets in World Cup final
Get the Sports newsletter
Daily sports — scores, transfers, the storylines from the leagues you actually follow. Free.
- Australia beat England by seven wickets in the World Cup final at Lord's, with England described as "one-paced with the bat and loose with the ball" in what coach Charlotte Edwards called their worst performance of the tournament.
- Charlotte Edwards stopped short of ruling out a squad overhaul after the loss, drawing parallels to Michael Vaughan's pre-2005 Ashes reset, with the next Ashes series scheduled for next summer.
- Amy Jones is under pressure after five single-figure scores in seven World Cup matches; Surrey's Kira Chathli and Lancashire's Ellie Threlkeld are cited as potential successors, with a bold conversion of Alice Capsey to wicketkeeper floated to free up 18-year-old Davina Perrin as opener.
- Nat Sciver-Brunt's captaincy succession picture is shifting, with vice-captain Charlie Dean stepping up during Sciver-Brunt's two-week calf injury absence and Dani Gibson (25) earmarked to captain Sunrisers Leeds in The Hundred.
- Sophie Molineux said Australia have "not reached any ceiling," warning Edwards that overhauling the world number one by next summer is her hardest of three challenges — made harder by the impending departures of ECB director of women's cricket Clare Connor and performance director Jonathan Finch.
- Sophie Ecclestone has looked closer to her best than in recent years, while 35-year-old Danni Wyatt-Hodge finished as the tournament's leading run-scorer and Heather Knight (35) demonstrated her career is far from over.
Why it matters: Edwards has ticked two boxes — winning back English fans after the 16-0 Ashes whitewash and restoring world-event credibility after three underwhelming World Cups — but the third, overhauling Australia before next summer's Ashes, is the hardest, made more difficult by Molineux's claim her side has 'not reached any ceiling.' The ECB is simultaneously losing women's cricket director Clare Connor and performance director Jonathan Finch during the rebuild.
