Dubai, Mar 3: India opener Smriti Mandhana on Tuesday climbed to the top of the ICC Women’s ODI Batting Rankings following her fine performances in the just-concluded three-match series against Australia.
Mandhana (790 points) made notable scores of 58 and 31 in the series, doing enough to move past South Africa’s Laura Wolvaardt (782), who will have the opportunity to reclaim the spot when the Proteas take on New Zealand across March and April.
Making a century in her final ODI, Alyssa Healy signed off in fourth place on the rankings (744), wedged between Beth Mooney (749) and Ashleigh Gardner (724).
India captain Harmanpreet Kaur is the other Indian in top 10 at ninth position, while Jemimah Rodrigues is on 12th.
Despite losing all three matches of the ODI series, there was joy for Harmanpreet (652), who moved four spots back into the top 10 for batters, thanks to scores of 53, 54 and 25.
Deepti Sharma is the lone Indian in top 10 among bowlers at the 10th spot.
Alana King (775) jumped to the top of Women’s ODI bowling rankings, ending Sophie Ecclestone’s near four-year reign at the top of the rankings. Gardner is placed third.
Across the week King led both the teams with seven wickets at an average of 16.71, claiming 4/33 form 10 overs in the third ODI, helping the hosts to a 185-run victory. It propelled her to her first No.1 rating, with her rating of 775 also a career high.
King is joined by four Australian bowlers in the top eight – Gardner (third), Annabel Sutherland (fifth), Megan Schutt (seventh) and Kim Garth (eighth).
There were a number of other performers from the series to enjoy rankings boosts.
After losing two of the three T20Is on home soil, Australia bounced back to claim the three ODIs as part of the multi-format series, and found success through Mooney, Gardner and Healy, the latter calling time on her ODI career.
Gardner (516) holds the No.1 spot in the ODI all-rounder rankings, almost 100 rating points ahead of West Indies Hayley Matthews (418) in second.
Sutherland (408) made a two-spot move on the all-rounder rankings, while youngster Georgia Voll (534) made a 23-spot jump to 34th in the batting rankings after averaging 54 in the three ODIs.
Deepti also features in top 10 in all-rounders rankings at the fifth spot. (PTI)
