Rachel Haynes should have won the Player of the tournament award: Alyssa Healy

It was an unforgettable outing for Alyssa Healy as she played her career-best knock of 170(138) against England at the Hagley Oval in Christchurch, in the final of the Women’s World Cup 2022. Her remarkable knock led to Australia posting a whopping 357 runs target for England to chase, and then eventually clinching the title. She also won the Player of the Tournament for scoring most runs. But Healy thought Rachael Haynes deserved the award and not her.

Australia remained unbeaten throughout the tournament and went on to win all the nine matches that they played. After winning all the seven games of the league stage, they won the semifinal against West Indies to mark their eighth win, and then the final marked their ninth consecutive win in the tournament.

Healy broke multiple records in the final of the World Cup. She recorded the highest score by any individual, 170, at a World Cup final in the history of the tournament (men or women). She also became the first batter to score a ton in both the semi-finals and the finals of a World Cup across genders. Her total of 509 runs throughout the tournament is also the highest in the Women’s edition of the World Cup.

For all the above achievements, when she was awarded the Player of the Tournament trophy, she said that it was her opening partner Rachael Haynes who deserved the title more than her. “I shouldn’t have received this award but Rach should have because I just turned up for the last two games. I enjoyed being out there,” Healy said after Australia won the Cup.

I think we deserve the win tonight: Meg Lanning

Australia made a remarkable comeback in the tournament, after crashing out of the semi-finals in the 2017 edition. They’re now seven-time champions of the ODI World Cup, and also account to be the current World Champions in the T20I format.

“I never imagined in my wildest dreams. We knew the first ten was challenging, you had two world-class bowlers swinging the ball. We had to set up the game for the middle order. I enjoy batting with Rach,” Healy further added after receiving the trophy.

The Australian Skipper, Meg Lanning, shared her thoughts on winning the title, and said that her team was the rightful winner of the championship. Australia has been the most consistent team in the world for the past five years. After the defeat in the 2017 World Cup, they went on to win almost every match that they played.

“We have been extremely consistent over a long period of time and to come out and perform so well throughout the tournament, I think we deserve the win tonight. We knew we had to have a number of people contributing which we had throughout the tournament, we had some young players come in and make an impact straight away which is great for the team and great for the more experienced players to keep pushing them to get better. Off the field we had great support from the coaching staff and support staff to get us to this point,” said Lanning after the win.