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Australian captain Meg Lanning says her team played the perfect match in demolishing India to win their fifth Twenty20 World Cup final.
Meg Lanning is used to winning, but leading Australia to a fifth Twenty20 World Cup title in front of 86,174 fans is the pinnacle of her career.
She joined Michael Clarke and Lyn Larsen as Australian cricketers to have captained a winning World Cup campaign on home soil.
Lanning's team saved their best for last with a crushing 85-run final win against India at the MCG on a landmark evening for women's sport.
While they won in commanding style, just making the decider was the hard part.
Lanning said nerves played a big role following their tournament-opening loss to India.
They escaped with close wins, before surviving Sydney rain and a brave South African side in the semi-finals.
"When they said they wanted to get 90,000 people to the MCG for a World Cup final, I must admit I was a little bit skeptical," Lanning said.
"This day is certainly the best of my career so far.
"That New Zealand game and the semi-final was the most nervous and sick I've felt playing the game of cricket. Ever.
"I guess to get through and coming into today, obviously everyone was a little bit on edge but it just happened.
"It was perfect right from the first ball. For some reason today, I'm not sure what was it but everyone came in calm."
Lanning's captaincy was assured all the way through, but opening batter Alyssa Healy took centre stage in the decider.
The wicketkeeper was all smiles walking out in front of the biggest women's cricket crowd in history.
That grin never disappeared during the Twenty20 World Cup final, as she blasted 75 from 39 balls to write herself into Australian cricket folklore.
"I don't think anything's ever going to top that," she said.
"For me, I never thought I would get the opportunity to do something as cool as what we did today and play in front of almost 90,000 people in a home World Cup final."
Healy's opening partner Beth Mooney played an equally as important, if unassuming, role with an unbeaten 78.
