The West Indies took full advantage of their home One-Day Internationals (ODIs) against New Zealand when they surged to the top of the ICC Women’s Championship table.
Several players also made making significant movements in the Reliance ICC ODI Women’s Rankings, which were released this morning.
The West Indies won all four ODIs against New Zealand, with the first three matches counting towards the ICC Women’s Championship. This event has been introduced to create a more extensive and meaningful bilateral playing programme for women’s cricket, with the top four sides from this competition qualifying for the ICC Women’s World Cup 2017.
The victories not only helped the West Indies to draw level with New Zealand at seven-all from 15 ODIs to date, it also put the ICC Women’s World Cup India 2013 losing finalist on top of the table on net run-rate.
World champion Australia also won its matches against Pakistan and is on six points, but West Indies’ convincing victories has put it ahead by +0.35 on net run-rate. With six more rounds to be played in the tournament, lots of movement at the top of the tree is on the cards.
The first round of the ICC Women’s Championship will conclude next month when South Africa will travel to Sri Lanka for a four-ODI series, with the first three to count towards the ICC Women’s Championship. The championship matches will be played in Colombo on 15, 17 and 19 October.
Meanwhile, the West Indies’ five wickets, 65 runs, eight wickets and four runs victories in the series have meant its players have also made gains in the player rankings.
Left-arm spinner Anisa Mohammed has led the charge in the bowlers’ rankings when she has jumped seven places to claim a career-high second position.
Mohammed captured 12 wickets in the four-match series, including eight wickets in the three ICC Women’s Championship matches. Her series best was in the second ODI when she bagged four for 32.
Her rise means the West Indies now boasts the top two-ranked bowlers, with Stafanie Taylor leading the pack. Shanel Daley, in fifth position, is the other West Indies bowler to feature inside the Top 10.
Medium-pacers Tremayne Smartt and Shakera Selman are the other notable West Indies bowlers to head in the right direction. The medium-pacer returned figures of five for 24, one for 40, one for 14 and none for 20, for which he has been rewarded with a jump of 10 places that has put her in 16th position, while Selman’s three wickets in the series has given her a lift of 17 places that has put her in 21st position.
Amongst the batters, Deandra Dottin has returned to the Top 10 after a consistent performance in the series in which she aggregated 176 runs in four matches. For this, she has been rewarded with a rise of three places that has put her in ninth position.
Taylor has also gained one place and is now in fourth position, following her 159 runs in the four matches.
The batting table is headed by India captain Mithali Raj, who leads England’s Charlotte Edwards by 12 ratings points.
In the all-rounders’ category, Daley has leapfrogged Australia’s Ellyse Perry into second position. (PR)
Points table (after West Indies vs New Zealand matches):
Teams
P
W
L
N/R
Points
NRR
West Indies
3
3
0
0
6
+1.712
Australia
3
3
0
0
6
+1.357
England
3
2
0
1
5
+0.686
India
3
0
2
1
1
-0.686
South Africa
0
0
0
0
0
0
Sri Lanka
0
0
0
0
0
0
Pakistan
3
0
3
0
0
-1.357
New Zealand
3
0
3
0
0
-1.712
Note – two points for a win, no point for a loss and one point for a no-result.
