Laura Wolvaardt has nudged past Smriti Mandhana to become the ICC’s No. 1-ranked women’s ODI batter, her twin hundreds in the World Cup knock-out stages proving decisive.
The South Africa opener piled up 169 against England in the semi-final and followed it with 101 in the final against India. Those efforts gave her a tournament-record 571 runs and lifted her to 814 rating points, three ahead of Mandhana’s 811. Mandhana had held the position throughout the competition but could not fully capitalise in the closing stages, posting 24 in India’s semi-final versus Australia and 45 against South Africa in the title match. She still finished second on the event’s run-scorers’ chart.
Australia’s Ellyse Perry returned to the top ten, moving seven spots to joint-seventh alongside New Zealand’s Sophie Devine after a measured 77 in the semi-final. Devine, who has now stepped away from ODIs, bows out sharing that position. Jemimah Rodrigues climbed nine places to tenth thanks to her unbeaten, match-winning 127 that knocked Australia out, while Phoebe Litchfield’s 119 in the same game lifted her 13 positions to 13th.
With the ball, Marizanne Kapp’s 5 for 20 against England drove her two rungs up to second among ODI bowlers, leaving only England’s Sophie Ecclestone ahead. Australia’s Annabel Sutherland and Kim Garth each moved up one place to sixth and seventh respectively, while Alana King slipped to third after Kapp’s surge.
Player-of-the-tournament Deepti Sharma, who contributed seven wickets and useful lower-order runs during the knock-outs, jumped to fourth on the all-rounders’ list, overtaking Sutherland.
Full ranking tables for teams, batters, bowlers and all-rounders are available on the ICC website.
