Deepti, Titas make big jumps in ICC Women’s T20I rankings

New Delhi, Jan 9 (IANS) India duo of senior off-spin all-rounder Deepti Sharma and teenaged fast-bowler Titas Sadhu have made big jumps in the latest update to ICC Women’s T20I rankings on Tuesday. 

Deepti has jumped four spots to second on the T20I bowling rankings and solidified her position in fourth place in the all-rounder rankings. With 723 rating points, Deepti did just enough to overtake South Africa's Nonkululeko Mlaba, who sits at 722 rating points, in the bowling rankings.

Deepti returned with spells of 2/24 and 2/22 in her two T20I meetings with Australia. A score of 30 on top of her bowling exploits moved her to an all-rounder rating of 381, 17 points behind Australia’s off-spin all-rounder Ashleigh Gardner (398), who sits at third place.

On the other hand, Titas, the only player to match Deepti's four-wicket tally in the ongoing T20I series, climbed 50 spots to be at 92nd position with 358 rating points in bowling rankings. For Australia, leg-spinner Georgia Wareham made a 15-spot jump to 28th position (571 rating points), taking three wickets across the two matches in Navi Mumbai.

In the batting rankings, Australia captain Alyssa Healy re-entered the top 10, leapfrogging compatriot Gardner to a rating of 636. India vice-captain Smriti Mandhana held her fourth-place spot thanks to 77 runs across two innings, while Ellyse Perry's work in the middle order has led to a two-spot climb to 19th place (590 rating points).

Young Australia batter Phoebe Litchfield, also an ICC Emerging Women's Cricketer of the Year nominee, jumped 26 places to 52nd position in the batting rankings (440), thanks to scores of 49 (32) and 18 not out (12) across the two T20Is.

In the Women’s ODI rankings, Australia pacer Megan Schutt’s 2/23 from six overs led her climb to second spot on the bowling rankings (672) to be behind England left-arm spinner Sophie Ecclestone, who’s in the top spot with a rating of 746 points.

Georgia’s spell of 3/23 saw the leg-spinner move six places up to 12th (565), while the century for Phoebe led her to a nine-spot jump to 23rd on the batting rankings (23rd). India’s off-spin all-rounder Shreyanka Patil jumped 66 places after her three-wicket haul, moving to 309 rating points in 62nd place.

--IANS

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