David Warner believes Australia have proved a point to their detractors by finishing a dominant Twenty20 tri-series with a convincing victory over New Zealand in Wednesday's final.
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Ashton Agar returned 3-27 in a starring role with the ball to restrict the Black Caps to 9-150, before D'Arcy Short posted a quickfire 50 in Australia's reply, which was halted by rain but resulted in a 19-run win via the Duckworth-Lewis method.
Warner, who has skippered the side in the absence of the rested Steve Smith, consequently led his team to a 100 percent record in the series, which also involved England, and he hailed the strength in numbers in Australia's ranks.
"I'm over the moon, from the get-go we played superb cricket and tried to execute everything with energy," he said at the post-match presentation.
"We look back at the last 18 to 24 months, people talk about us not taking T20s seriously, but this bunch have come out of the BBL with superb form and I couldn't be prouder of the guys.
"It proves the great depth in Australia cricket."
#NZvAUS pic.twitter.com/nMGvIfj4My
— cricket.com.au (@CricketAus) February 21, 2018
New Zealand had a decent start through Martin Guptill (21) and Colin Munro (29), but Agar's dazzling spell quickly halted the momentum and, had it not been for Ross Taylor's resilient 43 the Black Caps would have been facing a much bigger defeat.
And skipper Kane Williamson conceded that his side fell well short.
"Through the middle we didn't assess as well as we could have," he said.
"There was a bit of scarring, and we probably thought we needed more. The rain probably didn't affect the result, that's just the way it goes.
"With the bat they were ultra-positive, we were looking to take wickets but weren't able to do so."