England and Australia have taken different roads to the Women’s World Cup final, which is to be played in Christchurch on Sunday. While England staged a remarkable turnaround after having lost their first three games, the Aussies are unbeaten.

But it is England who are the defending champions and captain Heather Knight expects her team to continue with the good work. “I think winning will mean more after the start we had in this competition and being able to turn it around will be remarkable really,” Knight said at the pre-match media conference.

“And back-to-back (titles), we’ve an opportunity to make history being the first England team to do that,” she added.

Australia have their own legacy to play for. A win on Sunday will give them their record-extending seventh World Cup. Skipper Meg Lanning wants her team to play accordingly. “It’s going to be a massive challenge for us and certainly not going to be easy, but we feel confident that if we can put up as close to our best as possible, that’ll give us a good chance,” she said.

Lanning also said they were keen to play injured all-rounder Ellyse Perry as a specialist batter.

Written with agency inputs