England jumps to third in the ICC Women’s Championship

England’s women won by seven wickets (in Leicester), 212 runs (in Worcester) and 202 runs (in Taunton) in what was a high-scoring series with the home side scoring 360 runs or more in the final two matches of the series and two England batters Tammy Beaumont and Lauren Winfield sharing three centuries between them.

The newly appointed England captain was thrilled with the effort, but reminded her side of the long journey ahead. “We have only played three matches (in this season), and we aren’t looking too far ahead.  It’s been a brilliant effort so far, but now comes the test of maintain this level of performance as we build towards a home ICC Women’s World Cup next summer.”

Coach Mark Robinson was happy for the move up the championship table. “Every international game of cricket is important, but it was clearly very important that we secured maximum points from these three ICC Women’s Championship matches against Pakistan, to put ourselves back into the mix at the top of the table.”

World champion and number-one ranked Australia leads the pack with 24 points with two rounds remaining, while the recently crowned ICC Women’s World Twenty20 champion West Indies is close behind on 20 points. After pipping Pakistan, England has climbed to 19 points and in doing so, has leap-frogged New Zealand (fourth), South Africa (fifth) and India (sixth). Pakistan has retained its seventh position, while Sri Lanka is in eighth spot.

The final two rounds of the inaugural edition of the ICC Women’s Championship are scheduled to be played between September and November, with the top four sides at the end of the competition qualifying for next year’s ICC Women’s World Cup 2017, which will be staged in England from 26 June to 23 July. The bottom four sides will get a final chance of qualification through the ICC Women’s World Cup Qualifier in early 2017.

England’s impressive performance against Pakistan is also reflected in the latest MRF Tyres ICC ODI Women’s Player rankings.

Knight began her reign as England captain in Leicester in style when she became the first women’s captain to score 50 runs and take five wickets in the same match. She finished the series with 88 runs (three innings, two not-outs) and five wickets, for which she has been rewarded with jumps in all the three categories.

In the batting table, Knight has moved up three places to a career-best 13th position, in the bowlers chart she is now at a career-high 33rd spot (up by nine places), while in the all-rounders rankings, she has gained a position to rest in eighth place.

Beaumont was the star performer for England with the bat. The 25-year-old opener from Kent scored two centuries on her way to finishing as the leading run scorer with 342 runs, including 104 in Worcester and 168* in Taunton. As a result, she has returned to the batting table in a career-best 37th spot.

Lauren Winfield has achieved a career-high 55th place (up by 36 places) following her series contribution of 166 runs, while Natalie Sciver has claimed a career-best 26th spot (up by seven places) after finishing as the third highest scorer in the series with 155 runs.

Pakistan’s Bismah Maroof (107 runs) was her side’s top run-scorer and fourth overall in the series, which was enough for her to retain 14th position.

Meg Lanning of Australia is the number-one ranked batter, followed by New Zealand’s Suzie Bates and Mithali Raj of India.

Amongst the bowlers, Katherine Brunt has moved ahead of the West Indies’ Anisa Mohammed in second place following her nine wickets in the series, Anya Shrubsole’s six wickets in the series have helped her push up eight spots for a career-best ninth place.

Other movers were Laura Marsh 24th (up by four places), Sadia Yousuf 28th (up by one place) and Natalie Sciver 65th (up by eight places).

India’s Jhulan Goswami is the number-one ranked bowler and she leads Brunt by 72 points.

Ellyse Perry is the number-one ranked all-rounder, followed by the West Indies’ Stafanie Taylor and New Zealand’s Suzie Bates.

The ICC Women’s Championship will resume in September with all eight sides scheduled to feature in the final two rounds, which will culminate in November.

Schedule of Round 6 matches in the ICC Women’s Championship:

Sri Lanka vs Australia
18 Sep – 1st ODI, Dambulla
20 Sep – 2nd ODI,  Dambulla
23 Sep – 3rd ODI,  Dambulla

South Africa vs New Zealand
8 Oct – 1st ODI, De Beers Diamond Oval, Kimberley
11 Oct – 2nd ODI, De Beers Diamond Oval, Kimberley
13 Oct – 3rd ODI, De Beers Diamond Oval, Kimberley

West Indies vs England
14 Oct – 3rd ODI, Sabina Park, Kingston
16 Oct –  4th ODI, Sabina Park, Kingston
19 Oct –   5th ODI, Sabina Park, Kingston

ICC Women’s Championship 2014 – 2016

Teams             P     W    L   Tie   N/R   Points    NRR
Australia          15   12    3     0      0       24        +0.745
West Indies      15   10    5     0      0       20        +0.497
England           15    9     5     0      1       19        +0.754
New Zealand   15    8     7     0      0       16        +0.232
South Africa    15    7     7     0      1       15         -0.069
India                15    6     8     0      1       13         +0.008
Pakistan          15    4    11     0      0       8         -1.030
Sri Lanka        15     2    12    0      1       5         -1.152

Note – two points for a win, no point for a loss and one point for a no-result

MRF Tyres ICC Women’s Rankings (as on 28 June, after England-Pakistan ODI series):

Rank      Team                     Points
1              Australia                128
2              England                 124
3              New Zealand        115
4              India                      107
5              West Indies           104
6              South Africa         93
7              Pakistan                81
8              Sri Lanka              71
9              Bangladesh           45
10           Ireland                   29

(Developed by David Kendix)

MRF Tyres ICC ODI Women’s Player Rankings (as on 28 June, after England-Pakistan ODI series): 

Batting (Top 10)

Rank      (+/-)        Player              Team       Pts       Avge      Highest Ratings
   1           ( - )          Meg Lanning        Aus         834!       50.57      834 v NZ at Bay Oval 2016
   2           ( - )          Suzie Bates           NZ          775!       40.50      775 v Aus at Bay Oval 2016
   3           ( - )          Mithali Raj           Ind          722        49.54      839 v Aus at Baroda Vadodar 2004
   4           ( - )          Ellyse Perry           Aus         717        42.48      725 v NZ at Bay Oval 2016
   5           ( - )          Stafanie Taylor    WI          690        45.63     765 v Ind at St Kitts (WP) 2012
   6           (+2)         Alex Blackwell     Aus         663        34.71     683 v Ind at Canberra 2008
   7           (-1)          Sarah Taylor        Eng         640        39.76     803 v Aus at Chelmsford 2009
   8           (-1)          C Edwards            Eng         639        38.16     749 v NZ at Lincoln 2015
   9           ( - )          H Kaur                  Ind          630        35.57     679 v SA at Bangalore 2014
  10        ( - )           Trisha Chetty       SA           583!       31.63     583 v WI at East London 2016

Selected rankings

Rank     (+/-)       Player                 Team      Points     Ave      Highest Rating
  13         (+3)         Heather Knight    Eng         562!       32.73     562 v Pak at Taunton 2016
  14         ( - )          Bismah Maroof   Pak         549         26.30     551 v Ban at Karachi 2015
  17         (-4)          Javeria Khan        Pak         517         28.80     573 v SA at Sharjah 2015
26         (+7)         Natalie Sciver       Eng         437*!    41.41     437 v Pak at Taunton 2016
  32         (-5)          Nain Abidi             Pak         387         19.33     459 v Ire at Dublin 2012
  37         (RE)        T Beaumont         Eng         357*!    39.21     357 v Pak at Taunton 2016
  55         (+36)      Lauren Winfield   Eng         270*!    22.20     270 v Pak at Taunton 2016
  64         (+21)      Georgia Elwiss      Eng         249*!    30.71     249 v Pak at Taunton 2016

Bowling (Top 10)

Rank     (+/-)      Player                 Team     Points      Ave        Econ      Highest Rating
   1           ( - )          Jhulan Goswami  Ind          730         21.78     3.18       796 v Eng at Chennai 2007
   2           (+1)         Katherine Brunt   Eng         658         22.59     3.36       796 v Ind at Mumbai 2013
   3           (-1)          A Mohammed     WI          638         17.99     3.26       704 v Aus at Sydney 2014
   4           ( - )          Shibnam Ismail   SA           615         19.27     3.53       641 v Eng at Johannesburg 2016
   5           ( - )          Ellyse Perry           Aus         609         24.53     4.32       698 v Ind at Mumbai 2012
   6           ( - )          Stafanie Taylor    WI          606         18.72     3.10       768 v NZ at Kingston 2013
   7           (+1)         D van Niekerk      SA           564*      17.23     3.35       583 v Ind at Bangalore 2014
   8           (-1)          Jenny Gunn          Eng         543         27.80     3.78       693 v Ind at Scarborough 2014
   9           (+8)         Anya Shrubsole   Eng         539*!    25.64     4.14       539 v Pak at Taunton 2016
  10         ( - )          Jess Jonassen        Aus         537*!    21.23     4.26       537 v NZ at Bay Oval 2016

Selected rankings

Rank     (+/-)      Player                 Team     Points      Ave        Econ      Highest Rating
12          (-3)          Sana Mir               Pak         529         26.06     3.57       610 v SA at Sharjah 2015
  24        (+4)          Laura Marsh        Eng         447         27.65     3.88       711 v Aus at Perth 2011
  26         (-2)          Nida Dar                Pak         437*      24.24     3.71       463 v Ban at Cox's Bazar 2014
  28         (+1)         Sadia Yousuf       Pak         391*      19.29     3.38       524 v Ire at Doha 2014
  29         (-2)          Asmavia Iqbal     Pak         379         32.79     4.43       458 v SA at Sharjah 2015
  13          ( - )       Danielle Hazell     Eng        517*      33.07     3.88       545 v NZ at Lincoln 2015
   33        (+9)         Heather Knight    Eng         367*!    21.34     4.33       367 v Pak at Taunton 2016
   65        (+8)         Natalie Sciver       Eng         220*!    21.76     4.64       220 v Pak at Taunton 2016

All-rounders (top 10)

Rank    (+/-)       Player                  Team     Points     Highest Rating
   1           ( - )          Ellyse Perry           Aus         437        446 v NZ at Bay Oval 2016
   2           ( - )          Stafanie Taylor    WI          418        559 v NZ at Kingston 2013
   3           ( - )          Suzie Bates           NZ          336!       336 v Aus at Bay Oval 2016
   4           ( - )          Jhulan Goswami  Ind          288        308 v Aus at Canberra 2016
   5           ( - )          D van Niekerk      SA           268 /*   284 v Eng at Centurion 2016
   6           ( - )          Marizanne Kapp SA           249 /*   273 v Ind at Bangalore 2014
   7           ( - )          Sophie Devine      NZ          245!       245 v Aus at Bay Oval 2016
   8           (+1)         Heather Knight    Eng         206 /*!  206 v Pak at Taunton 2016
   9           (-1)          Katherine Brunt   Eng         186*/    193 v Ind at Mumbai 2013
  10         (-1)          Bismah Maroof   Pak         172 /*   178 v WI at St Lucia 2015