SYDNEY: Australian skipper Meg Lanning received the prestigious ICC Women's Championship trophy here in Sydney after a stupendous show in the tournament that culminated with a 3-0 series win over South Africa.

World champion Australia finished with 36 points on the points table in the eight-team tournament, which saw all teams play a three-match series against each other. Australia was assured of the trophy even before the series against South Africa with an unassailable 30 points from 18 matches.

The trophy was handed over to Lanning by ICC Chief Executive David Richardson, who praised the Australia side for a fine effort in the eight-team tournament which decided the four automatic qualifiers for the ICC Women's World Cup 2017.

England (29 points), New Zealand (26) and the West Indies (22) were the other teams to qualify directly for the ICC Women's World Cup 2017.

India was in contention for a direct qualification berth but its failure to play its Round 6 matches against Pakistan led to it forfeiting the six available points from the series, which, in turn, allowed the West Indies to directly qualify for the ICC Women's World Cup 2017.

India finished with 19 points to take fifth position followed by South Africa, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. These four sides will now have a second chance to qualify for the ICC Women's World Cup 2017 when they will feature in the 10-team ICC Women's World Cup Qualifier 2017 in Sri Lanka's capital Colombo from February 7-21. The other teams in the Colombo tournament will be regional qualifiers Bangladesh, Ireland, Papua New Guinea, Scotland, Thailand and Zimbabwe.

Four teams from the Colombo event will advance to the showpiece event in England and Wales from June 26 to July 23.