Punam Raut Moves Into Top 20 In ODI Rankings, Lee Moves To No.1

Cricket Image for Punam Raut Moves Into Top 20 In ODI Rankings, Lee Moves To No.1 (Punam Raut, Image Source: BCCI)

India's Punam Raut moved into the top 20 of the International Cricket Council's (ICC) women's ODI rankings for batters on Tuesday after her stellar performances in the five-match series between India and South Africa.

Punam, 31, recorded scores of 62 not out, 77 and 104 not out in the second, third and fourth ODIs. She has held a career high ranking of 13th and is fourth in the list among Indian batters after Smriti Mandhana (seventh) Mithali Raj (ninth) and Harmanpreet Kaur (15th). Harmanpreet is up two places among batters and has gained three places to reach 49th position in the bowling list.

Left-arm spinner Rajeshwari Gayakwad is another one to make notable gains, gaining four slots to reach 18th among bowlers with five wickets in three matches and advancing five places to 71st among batters. Sushma Verma (up three places to 81st among batters) and Mansi Joshi (up five places to 64th among bowlers) have also gained in the latest weekly update.

Meanwhile, South Africa's Lizelle Lee replaced England's Tammy Beaumont at the top of the rankings for batters. This is the second time that Lee has topped the ODI batting charts, having earlier taken the number one position in June 2018 when she had slammed 117 against England at Hove. Her reign that time only lasted for three days as she was overtaken by Australia's Ellyse Perry. Lee remains the only South African to top the women's ODI batting rankings.

Lee had scores of four, 132 not out and 69 in the three matches during the past week after having already moved from 11th to eighth the previous week with an unbeaten 83 in the series opener.