Chasing pack has caught up: Lanning

The gap between the top teams in women's Twenty20 cricket continues to close, but Commonwealth Bank Southern Stars captain Meg Lanning says it will only increase her team's motivation to improve.

The Southern Stars' streak of three World T20 titles ended in the face of a brash and bold West Indies outfit on Sunday, led by the inspirational batting of Hayley Matthews and Stafanie Taylor.

Quick Single: Stars stunned by wonderful Windies

The Windies not only won their first international tournament, it was also the first time they had beaten Australia in nine T20I meetings.

With a one-day World Cup coming up in England next year, followed by a Women's World T20 in the Caribbean in 2018, Lanning said her team knew they had to work hard to stay ahead of the pack.

"We've spoken about it a lot, that everyone is sort of catching up and going past I guess," Lanning said after the match.

"We need to keep improving to make sure we stay on top. We did that (this tournament), I think, but we weren't good enough today to beat the West Indies.

"There's no easy games in women's cricket any more. If you're not on, not 100 per cent, you're not going to win.

"We certainly found that out at this tournament."

Both Lanning and Southern Stars coach Matthew Mott admitted Australia's total of 5-148 was shy of what was required, with the Windies doing well to contain the Southern Stars late in their innings after a strong start.

"We knew we were in for a big fight today and halfway through our batting innings I thought we’d really put our foot on it," Mott said.

"But we missed a couple of opportunities to bury the game and other teams will knock you over in that case.

"I thought the Windies batted exceptionally well tonight."

While it will be of little consolation for the Southern Stars in the immediate future, the Windies triumph also highlighted just how remarkable Australia's three-title streak had been, given the unpredictable nature of T20 cricket.

"There's no doubt (it was remarkable)," Mott said.

"You look at the winning percentages of all the teams and they’re all pretty similar.

"Going into this tournament, New Zealand, England and Australia won about the same amount of games through the tournament, so it’s a remarkable achievement to win three of them."

Although the result didn't go as planned, there were positives for Lanning and Mott to draw from the tournament.

"As you saw in the back end of our innings even when we were out of the game, we didn't give up, and I think that’s part of the culture in this team and I think it’s exciting," Mott said.

"We didn’t get over the line tonight but we put ourselves in a position to win and in the end it’s a line ball, they can come down to a couple of key moments and we didn’t quite win them tonight."

Australia turned around a poor run of form to improve throughout the tournament and reach a fourth consecutive final and Mott said he wouldn't change anything from the way the team had gone about their preparation.

"It has been a tough, long road but if we won today I think we would have said what an amazing preparation we had.

"No excuses, I think we put our best foot forward, we were just a little bit shy of the mark today but the spirit that’s been shown in this group over the last few weeks in particular is something we’re really proud of.

"I know this group is going to be really strong for a long time and it’s great that other teams are challenging Australia.

"Any team could win it out of this tournament and the West Indies turning over a good side like New Zealand in the semi is a great example."

The brightest spark for Australia from the tournament was the form of Elyse Villani.

The 26-year-old was dropped from the Southern Stars squad in January but fought her way back into the squad, before finishing the tournament as Australia's most impressive batter alongside Lanning.

"I think she’s been a real inspiration for a lot of the girls in our group," Mott said.

"She definitely was struggling at various times. She didn’t have a great WBBL and we left her out with a heavy heart.

"We knew she was a good player but she actually needed to go back and find her game and she spent a lot of time working back in WA and reinventing herself and getting that freedom that you saw today.

"It was a really remarkable turnaround and great for our batting unit going forward."