Chamari Athapaththu Becomes Sri Lanka’s First Player to Top ICC Women’s ODI Player Rankings – News18

Captain of the Sri Lankan women’s team, Chamari Athapaththu has taken the top spot in the MRF Tyres ICC Women’s ODI player rankings after scoring 140 off 80 balls against New Zealand in the ICC Women’s Championship.

The opener fellow Sri Lankan, Sanath Jayasuriya who is the only male player to top the ODI rankings having held top spot for 181 days from September 2002 to May 2003.

Athapaththu managed win two ‘Player of the Match’ awards and the ‘Player of the Series’ award by scoring two centuries in three matches. She scored 108 not out of 83 balls in the first match and scored 140 not out of 80 deliveries in the third match.

These performances helped her jump the rankings above the likes of Harmanpreet Kaur, Meg Lanning, Laura Wolvaardt and displaced Australia’s Beth Mooney who held top spot in the batting charts since May 10.

Amongst women, only two other players have secured top spot in the rankings. Left-arm seam bowler Udeshika Prabodhani for T20i bowler rankings and Shashikala Siriwardene for T20i all-rounder rankings respectively.

Athapathu has racked up the highest ever points tally by a Sri Lankan woman in ODI’s with 758 points since all her highest individual scores for the national side has come in the 50-over format. The next highest points tally is 587 points held by Dedunu Silva who was ranked 11th in April 2010.

Other Sri Lankan players to advance in the rankings include Kavisha Dilhari who jumped 19 places to be ranked 37th among batters and Prabodhani who climbed 14 places to be ranked 32nd among bowlers.

The Kiwi’s captain Sophie Devine shot up six positions to secure the 13th spot after scoring 137 in Galle to win the second ODI of the series.

As per the latest ranking update which accounts for performances in the ICC Women’s Championship series, Irish opener Gaby Lewis jumped five places to 21st in the batting rankings after her unbeaten 95 in the final match, despite losing the series 2-0 against the West Indies which was held in the Carribean.

For the West Indies, bowlers Shamilia Cornell jumped four places to joint-24th and Afy Fletcher who went up 14 places to secure the 32nd position in the bowler’s rankings.

In T20i rankings, English batters, Sophie Dunkley jumped four places to 16th and Amy Jones advanced to one position to secure the 25th spot in the women’s batting rankings after the first match of the England-Australia series while Sarah Glenn jumped a position to third and Jess Jonassen advanced four spots to secure 18th in the bowling rankings.