England women’s team has got heart and courage, says coach

London, July 23 (IANS) England women's cricket team coach Mark Robinson said his side has got heart and courage as he applauded the side for winning the ICC Women's World Cup by nine runs against India here on Sunday.

At Lord's, India lost by nine runs after looking good for major part of their 229-run chase. Led by seasoned campaigner Jhulan Goswami (3/23), India restricted England to 228/7. But despite Punam Raut's defiant 86 and Harmanpreet Kaur's dogged 51, India failed to hold their nerves towards the end, throwing away the final which was there to be won.

"India played really well. It's always about getting that one wicket, and then you get two and three. Slower bowlers were always going to be hard to get away. This team has a lot of heart and courage and that were incredibly mapped by this tournament," Robinson said.

Medium-pacer Anya Shrubsole, who picked up 6-46 in her 9.4 overs, said her side knew how to tackle pressure which helped. She was also awarded the player of the match for her performance in the final.

"I am for a loss of words at the moment. An amazing performance from everyone, we could have easily given up. We know the pressure we play world cup finals with and that came to help us today. The crowd have been absolutely amazing," Shrubsole said.

"I haven't played at a game earlier where you cannot hear anyone on the field. We always knew that the team has shown a lot of fight, we were in a stage where we could have been out as well, but this teams knows how to fight," she added.

Wicket-keeper batter Tammy Beaumont, who was awarded the player of the tournament for scoring 410 runs in nine matches with an average of 45.55, said her side strove since April for this win.

"After the first three games, I had to be reminded that I have been doing well over the last one year. So many of the girls stood up and it has been a real team performance right through the tournament," Beaumont said.

"Lauren got us off to a pretty good start but we didn't quite do ourselves any favours with the middle order collapse. The bowlers, Shrubsole and Brunt then stepped up. In my head defending the total was never in doubt.

"But credit to the way the Indians batted. We came to Lord's in April, a lot of hardwork went into our preparations and (now) it is a great moment," she added.