Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI: India batter Smriti Mandhana climbed to the top of the ICC women’s ODI batting rankings in the latest list released by the ICC on March 2. She made notable scores of 58 and 31 in the week, which was enough to move past Laura Wolvaardt (790), who will have the opportunity to reclaim the spot when the Proteas take on New Zealand across March and April.
Meanwhile, Laura King (775) ended England’s Sophie Ecclestone’s near four-year reign at the top of the bowlers’ rankings. Across the week King claimed seven wickets at an average of 16.71, claiming 4-33 from 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.
Laura is joined by four Australian bowlers in the top eight – Ash 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 Beth Mooney, Ash Gardner and Alyssa Healy, the latter calling time on her ODI career. Making a century in her final match in the format, Healy signs off in fourth place on the rankings (744), wedged between Mooney (749) and Gardner (724).
Despite losing all three matches, there was joy for India skippper Harmanpreet Kaur (652), who moved four spots back into the top 10 for batters (ninth), thanks to scores of 53, 54 and 25. Gardner (516), meanwhile, holds the No. 1 spot in the ODI All-Rounder Rankings, almost 100 rating points ahead of the West Indies’ Hayley Matthews (418) in second.
