'The 2017 World Cup final was a tipping point for women's cricket'

Phoebe Graham reflects on the massive impact the 2017 Women's Cricket World Cup final had on the game and herself, before assessing how well-equipped England are to defend their title in New Zealand...

Historic women's cricket events are like London buses these days. You wait a lifetime for them, then they all come at once.

2022: Women's Ashes, World Cup, Commonwealth Games and, to finish the summer, The Hundred. It's crazy to think we're already into the second biggest event of this year's calendar.

If we pop the bus into reverse, to five years ago, we go back to the 2017 World Cup Final at Lord's: the most poignant and iconic moment in women's cricket history.

I wasn't playing cricket at the time and my pal Lauren Winfield-Hill invited me along to the game. I text her a few days before saying: "tickets are sold out but I'm going to watch in the pub next door". There was not a chance Lozza was going to let that happen!

Watching her open the batting for England, at Lord's, in a full stadium was one of my proudest moments. It was an incredible, breathtaking moment in sport I'll never forget.

As kids, we travelled the length of the country together in kit we paid for, playing on poor pitches but playing the game we loved.

The final in 2017 was women's cricket's tipping point to where we are today. They flipped perceptions and turned heads in the boardroom and in the Long Room, showcasing to the world how good England Women's cricket is.

The dedication, the commitment, the behind-the-scenes work that happened should never go underestimated. The impact that day had on me and cricket was profound.

It made me pick up my cricket kit again. It made cricket realise that women's cricket is here to stay and will be taken