Opener Smriti Mandhana continues to remain fourth, while India’s women’s cricket captain Harmanpreet Kaur has moved up the latest ICC Women’s ODI rankings in the joint-ninth position. The list was made public on Tuesday in Dubai after India won the third ODI of the ICC Women’s Championship series against New Zealand by six wickets in Ahmedabad. Harmanpreet slipped down to 13th after the first two matches, but her match-winning knock of 59 not out off 63 balls in India’s third match took her back into the top-10.
Player of the Match in the same game, Smriti Mandhana (100 runs), also climbed to earn a higher ranking. She gained 23 rating points and has a total of 728 points. Now, she is only five points short of Sri Lanka’s Chamari Athapaththu. In the ranks, England’s Natalie Sciver-Brunt is in first place with 760 points.
Indian wicketkeeper-batter Yastika Bhatia as well moved three places up to 45th from 48th after she scored 35 runs in the match. Brooke Halliday of New Zealand jumped 12 places to gain a share with the bat after scoring 86 in the third ODI, now ranked No. 24. Georgia Plimmer, Harris’ teammate, improved as well, from 85th to 74 (39 off 105)
India’s senior all-rounder Deepti Sharma gained more points in the batting rankings (bowling options). Two weeks ago, she breached her career-best 687 rating points to hold second place among bowlers. Deepti claimed 3/39 in the third ODI and added 16 more to her tally to reach 703 points and remain in second place. Sophie Ecclestone continues to top the list, with an enormous lead of 770 rating points from second-placed England.
While India are third in the ICC Women’s Championship with 25 points, New Zealand have 20 points from as many as 21 ODIs played so far and sit at sixth position. Australia and England occupy the top spots on 28 points each, but Australia over 18 matches and England over 21.
In general, some good performances helped India women cricketers move up the ranks despite early exit of team’s world cup campaign.