Ellyse Perry jets to the career-best second position in batting rankings

World champion Australia’s dominating 3-0 series win over South Africa in the last leg of the ICC Women’s Championship reflects in the latest MRF Tyres ICC ODI Rankings for Women Players with captain Meg Lanning and Ellyse Perry among those reaping the benefits of some fine performances.

Lanning has consolidated her position at the top of the ICC Test Player Rankings for Women Batters with 232 runs in the series. Lanning played a stellar role in helping her team win the championship as she was the leading scorer with 1,232 runs, the only one to top 1,000 runs in the tournament that ran from 2014-16.

All-rounder Ellyse Perry has moved up three places to take a career-best second position among batters after scoring 188 runs in the series to finish with 985 runs in the tournament. She shares the spot with India captain Mithali Raj, a former top-ranked batter, but the pair trails Lanning by 91 points. Perry has also advanced one slot to fourth position in the ICC ODI Player Rankings for Women Bowlers with three wickets in the series and 23 in the tournament.

The latest rankings take into account 15 One-Day Internationals played in November including 12 matches of the ICC Women’s Championship that featured three other series which saw New Zealand defeat Pakistan, England beat Sri Lanka and India defeat the West Indies, all by 3-0 margins.

Australia won the championship with 36 points, followed by England (29), New Zealand (26) and the West Indies (22), which were the other sides to advance directly to the ICC Women’s World Cup 2017. India, South Africa, Pakistan and Sri Lanka will get a second chance to make it to the ICC Women’s World Cup Qualifier to be held in Sri Lanka from February 7 to 21.

New Zealand’s Amy Satterthwaite, who became the first woman batter to score three consecutive ODI centuries in the series against Pakistan, has moved up three places to a career-best fifth position while West Indies batter Deandra Dottin has moved up two positions to 10th place scoring 85 runs in India.

Pakistan’s left-hander Bismah Maroof has got into the 10 top for the first time as she advanced one rank from the 11th position while England captain Heather Knight is just six points behind her, also moving up one place to take the 11th slot.

England’s Natalie Sciver has climbed up six places for a career-best 15th position while South Africa’s Lizelle Lee, who scored her maiden century (102) in the last ODI against Australia, has moved up seven ranks to take 16th position.

In the bowlers’ rankings led by India pace bowler Jhulan Goswami, left-arm spinners Jess Jonassen of Australia and India’s Rajeshwari Gayakwad, as well as New Zealand pace bowler Lea Tahuhu have achieved career-best rankings.

Jonassen, who was the most successive bowler in the competition with 31 wickets, has risen to sixth position. Gayakwad, who finished with 25 wickets, has moved up four positions to take 10th place, while Tuhuhu has moved up nine slots to take the 13th slot.

The ICC Women’s Championship saw the top eight teams play each other in three-match series in a bid to give exposure to teams and add context to bilateral matches. It saw several keenly contested series with India, England and New Zealand all scoring a win each against Australia and South Africa losing a match each to Pakistan and Sri Lanka.