In the first ODI against South Africa, Smriti Mandhana’s centurion performance left the cricketing world in awe of her batting prowess and her unwavering ability to stay at the wicket for extended periods of time.
In addition to inspiring India to an incredible comeback victory, after falling behind by only 99/5 in the 22nd over, the daring century at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru also caused a change in the ICC Women’s ODI batting rankings.
Thanks to her outstanding batting display, Smriti Mandhana moved up to third place, over both South Africa’s opening batswoman, Laura Wolvaardt, and Australia’s left-handed Beth Mooney. The Sangli native’s accomplishment would have surely greatly increased her confidence, as she had battled cramping for the majority of her innings.
Smriti Mandhana achieved her first-ever century at home with a remarkable 117-run thrashing. Her outstanding batting display was matched by RCB teammate Asha Sobhana, who made her ODI debut and had yield statistics of 8.4-2-21-4 in her first outing. Mandhana is now trailing Sri Lanka’s Chamari Athapaththu, who lost her top spot to England’s Natalie Sciver-Brunt, with 715 points. With a remarkable 124* against Pakistan last month, the English all-rounder took back the top rank.
Deepti advances in the bowler rankings.
Pooja Vastrakar moved up three spaces to 38th, while star off-spinner Deepti Sharma jumped three spots to reach 20th place thanks to her incredibly economical game against South Africa Women (2/10 in six overs). Notably, Vastrakar moved up four spots to take the 18th spot in the ODI all-rounder rankings, which is a notable increase.
Nonetheless, English left-arm off-spinner Sophie Ecclestone, who leads the ODI bowling rankings, has the most dominant position. She continues to dominate second-place Megan Schutt by a comfortable 70 points. As in the first ODI, Deepti stormed to her career-high fourth spot on the same list. If she continues to play at this level for the rest of the ODI series, she might even be able to overtake Kate Cross and Schutt.
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