Mandhana continues to be on top; Brits gain big in women’s ODI rankings

Dubai: South Africa’s batter Tazmin Brits made a significant leap in the latest ICC women’s ODI player rankings, released on Tuesday, ahead of the Women’s World Cup starting next week in India.

While South Africa faced Pakistan in a three-match ODI series, India hosted Australia for an equally intensive series as teams prepare for their World Cup campaign. Both South Africa and Australia won their respective series with a similar score of 2-1, with players, especially batters, earning substantial points thanks to their top performances.

Against Pakistan, Brits scored her career-best innings of an unbeaten 171 off 141 balls, including 20 fours and four sixes. While Brits scored back-to-back centuries against Pakistan, Mandhana also scored consecutive centuries in the second and third ODIs against Australia.

Mandhana, however, continues to top the ODI rankings after gaining career-high ranking points of 818, while Brits has jumped a remarkable 15 places to take fifth position. Beth Mooney, who scored a match-winning century against India in the recently concluded third ODI, moved up two spots to third.

Pakistan’s Sidra Amin also made notable progress, climbing 10 spots to 13th. Marizanne Kapp and Deepti Sharma’s all-round performances helped them ascend to ninth (up two spots) and 18th (up six places), respectively.

Kapp also inched closer to the top spot in the Women’s ODI All-Rounder Rankings and jumped one place up to second rank. She is just a few rating points away from dethroning Australia’s Ashleigh Gardner in the top spot.

Additional notable progress includes Australia’s Georgia Voll, who rose 28 spots to rank 61st, and Pakistan’s Natalia Pervaiz, who, despite being outside the top 100, climbed 54 spots after scoring a half-century in the second ODI.

All teams will be up against each other at the Women’s World Cup starting on September 30 in India and Sri Lanka.

— IANS