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South Africa’s Lizelle Lee moves up to eighth position and Laura Wolvaardt enters the top 20 for batters
New Zealand captain Sophie Devine has joined England’s Nat Sciver at the top of the ICC rankings for women’s allrounders in T20Is. India opener Shafali Verma and England spinner Sophie Ecclestone retained the No. 1 spot for batters and bowlers respectively in the format.
Devine’s all-round dominance in the second T20I on Saturday helped New Zealand level the ongoing three-match series against hosts England. She was adjudged Player of the Match for her 50 and 2 for 28 in that game, her 100th appearance in T20Is. This is the first series Devine is playing since taking a break from cricket in March owing to mental-health reasons.
Devine, 32, was ranked No. 1 among allrounders for more than a year after first reaching the position in February last year. In the latest update she equalled Sciver’s 371 rating points among allrounders, while moving up one spot to No. 5 and four places up to the 30th position for batters and bowlers respectively. She had achieved a career-best second place among T20I batters early last year on the back of a record six straight scores of 50 or more in the format.
Other New Zealand players to move up in the rankings include Amy Satterthwaite (up two places to 26th) and Maddy Green (up eight places to 65th) among batters, and offspinner Leigh Kasperek (up one place to 22nd) and medium-pacer Hayley Jensen (up eight places to 52nd) among bowlers.
England’s Tammy Beaumont, who struck a match-winning 97 off 65 in the first T20I against New Zealand, climbed four places to reach the 16th position among batters.
Following the recently concluded 1-1 tied T20I series between South Africa and hosts West Indies, opener Lizelle Lee’s series-topping 114 runs helped her gain three slots to attain the eighth position while her team-mate Laura Wolvaardt advanced four places to 20th spot after scoring 71 runs in three innings. Among the West Indies players, bowlers Hayley Matthews (up seven places to 14th) and Anisa Mohammed (up six places to 37th) made gains.
Source: ESPN Crickinfo
