Indian skipper Mithali Raj closes in on ICC ODI rankings top spot

16 July, Dubai (CRICKETNMORE): Australia’s Ellyse Perry has gained three places to reach a career-best third position among batters in the latest ICC Women’s ODI Player Rankings which were updated on Sunday after the league phase of the ICC Women’s World Cup 2017.

The 26-year-old Perry, who is second in the list of batters in the tournament with 366 runs and has so far taken nine wickets, has also become the world’s top all-rounder by leapfrogging West Indies captain Stafanie Taylor. This will be Perry’s third stint as the number-one all-rounder as she was also at the top from 24 February to 18 September 2016 and then again between 8-10 October.

Defending champion Australia, which finished second in the eight-team league, also saw Nicole Bolton gain eight places to reach a career-best 11th position among batters. Left-arm spinner Jess Jonassen has gained three places to reach a career-best second position among bowlers with nine wickets from six matches while Megan Schutt has moved up four positions to reach 16th rank with similar success.

England, which topped the league and will play South Africa in the first semi-final in Bristol on Tuesday, expectedly had significant gainers among batters as well as bowlers.

Natalie Sciver has moved up seven places to reach seventh position, captain Heather Knight has moved up one place to 10th slot while Tommy Beaumont has gained 13 places to reach a career-best 16th position after leading the run-scorers list with 372 from seven matches so far. Anya Shrubsole’s upward movement of five slots to reach 16th rank is the most significant among its bowlers.

India, which disposed of New Zealand to set up a semi-final clash with six-time champion Australia in Derby on Thursday, saw its captain Mithali Raj make a move back towards the number rank among batters. Her 356 runs in the tournament, which includes a match-winning 109 against New Zealand, has taken her to within five points of number-one Meg Lanning’s 779 points after starting the tournament at second place, but 51 points behind her Australian counterpart.

Poonam Raut (up 12 places to 19th) and Smriti Mandhana (up eight places to 29th) are the significant gainers among India’s batters while pace bowler Shikha Pandey (up three places to 13th) and spinner Deepti Sharma (up nine places to 21st) have made noteworthy progress among bowlers.

For South Africa, captain Dane van Niekerk’s 15 wickets have seen her jump 14 places to fifth position while Shabnim Ismail has moved into the top 10 by gaining two places to reach eighth rank. Openers Lizelle Lee (up four places to sixth) and Laura Wolvaardt (up 12 places to a career-best 22nd) have moved up the rankings among batters.

For New Zealand, Katie Perkins has gained three places to reach 24th position among batters while Holly Huddleston has gained 10 places to reach 30th among bowlers.

Sri Lanka’s batting star Chamari Athapaththu, who accumulated 311 runs including the tournament’s highest score of 178 not out, has gained 12 positions to reach joint-11th rank while pace bowler Sripali Weerakkody has moved up 12 places to 29th rank.

For Pakistan, captain Sana Mir has gained 18 slots to reach joint-37th position among batters and Nahida Khan has moved up 16 places to 45th place. Spinner Nashra Sundhu has gained 13 places to reach joint-61st position.

For the West Indies, which was runner-up last time but went out of contention for a knockout berth fairly early this time, Chedean Nation’s 76-place vault to 106th rank was a bright spot.

As for the ICC Women’s Team Rankings, which take into account both ODIs and T20Is, there was no change in positions with Australia gaining one point to lead the table at 128. England has gained two points to reach 124 in second position with New Zealand (118), India (113) and the West Indies (104) other teams in the top five.