WT20I Rankings: Harmanpreet, Shafali move up to tied 11th, Mandhana retains 5th spot

Smriti Mandhana (Pic: AFP)

Elegant Indian vice-captain Smriti Mandhana stayed put on fifth position while skipper Harmanpreet Kaur and the flamboyant Shafali Verma both reaped dividends for their impressive performances to be tied 11th in the latest WT20I Rankings, published on Tuesday.

Harmanpreet gained a place while Shafali jumped four slots in the batters' list with as many as four Indians in top-20. The fourth player is Jemimah Rodrigues at 19th position. The big-hitting Richa Ghosh is currently ranked 24th in the WT20I Rankings list.

Beth Mooney still leading batting charts with 769 points.

In the bowlers' list, off-spinner Deepti Sharma is static at third while seamer Renuka Singh leaped to ninth position. Left-arm spinner Radha Yadav is 20th in the list.

Young Shreyanka Patil moved up 19 places to be 41st. Sophie Ecclestone of England topped the charts.

Meanwhile, India registered convincing wins in their first two matches of the ongoing Women's T20 Asia Cup, beating traditional rivals Pakistan and United Arab Emirates by seven wickets and 78 runs respectively to put one foot in the semifinals.

Minnows Nepal hardly have any time to recover from the thrashing they received at the hands of Pakistan in their previous outing on Sunday, the same day when the tournament's overwhelming favourites and defending champions India bulldozed the hapless Emirates side.

Also Read: India men's cricket team arrives in Sri Lanka for white-ball series

While India are primed to enter the last-four, Pakistan improved their net run rate with the comfortable win over Nepal lifting them to the second spot in Group A.

India will, however, not be bothered by how the other teams are doing and will look to sustain the momentum they have gained with two convincing victories heading into the semifinals.

India have flexed their muscles in both batting and bowling so far in the tournament, and are likely to continue in the same vein come Tuesday.

If the swashbuckling opening duo of Smriti Mandhana and Shafali Verma fired with the bat in the victory over Pakistan, after the bowlers' excellent display, skipper Harmanpret Kaur and Richa Ghosh led the show in the middle-order in the hammering of the UAE.

(With agency inputs)