She didn’t finish her thought as she bowed her head, hid her face with her cap and wiped her eyes. At the moment, the significance of the last few hours descended on Sciver-Brunt and you could almost see the day replaying in her mind.

Her work had begun under blue skies, at a ground bathed in sunshine, with her son on her hip and the sounds of a nation getting behind her and her team. It ended at twilight, to the tunes of Clean Bandit and a song called “Rockabye”, the pale pastel aftermath of firework smoke in the air and the World Cup trophy in someone else’s hands. It was not the ending she, or most of the 28,887 people at Lord’s, wanted and certainly not the way Sciver-Brunt thought she’d feel after a whirlwind few weeks.

At least, Sciver-Brunt could manage a smile as she remembered how they began. “The first few games were really special,” she said. “The first game in Birmingham was a real highlight, obviously not having come off too much cricket myself, but to be part of that and feeling really great about my injuries. It was such a special day, and kickstarted a brilliant tournament.”

But there was uncertainty and a real chance Sciver-Brunt could sit out the rest of the tournament entirely, and she had to navigate that possibility alongside her role as a leader. “An injury during a World Cup hasn’t been easy,” she said. “I always wanted to try and remain positive around the group and not let on too much about how I was feeling most days but missing those games was pretty tough.”

That’s why walking out at Lord’s this afternoon with Theo and almost 30,000 hearts in the stands beating for her team mattered so much. That’s why when Sciver-Brunt could not score at more than a run-a-ball for the most part of her innings, England concluded that batting was much more difficult than they thought it would be and that a score of 150 could be enough.

“I’m passionate, I love what I do and I care so much about this team. That’s probably one of my strengths but the emotions are really hard,” Edwards said. “You sit there in front of 28,000 people and you can only smile. You just want a good game of cricket. It’s probably not the final we wanted but I sat there incredibly proud. And frustrated at times. My overriding emotion is ‘wow’. This is an important day for women’s cricket in this country and to play a part in that is something that I will remember for the rest of my life.”

Sciver-Brunt, too, could not ignore the impact her team was making even as the trophy slipped away. “We know from 2017 there are people in the crowd who are now in the England side, which is incredible,” she said. “You never know who will be the next person to have been inspired by what we’ve been able to do, and become more motivated to live their dreams. That has been a really special part of this tournament.”

More so, because Sciver-Brunt has accepted that she will not play another World Cup at home. The 2028 T20 World Cup will be held in Pakistan and though the venues of the 2029 ODI World Cup and 2030 T20 World Cup have not been decided yet, they’re not likely to be held in England. But will she be part of another World Cup? “I haven’t thought about that,” she said initially and then added more decisively. “I don’t want it to be my last World Cup. I don’t even know when the next one is, so I haven’t even put some thought into that at all. Obviously family is everything. The support that we get from our families, our team, our supporters, it all just means so much, I guess that’s why the emotions are high.”

In the stands, Sciver-Brunt’s family were shouting her name so loudly she heard almost nothing else and back at the hotel her wife Katherine and Theo await. Sciver-Brunt doesn’t have a trophy in hand but it sounds like she still has a decent prize.