India vs South Africa: Punam Raut among top 20 batters in ICC rankings after stellar display in ODIs

Dubai: Following her brilliant performance in the ongoing one-day series against South Africa, India’s Punam Raut broke into the top 20 among batters in the latest ICC women’s ODI rankings, released on Tuesday. Raut, who has held a career high ranking of 13th, jumped eight places to 18th after scores of 62 not out, 77 and 104 not out in her last three matches. Opener Smriti Mandhana remains the top ranked Indian batter at the seventh spot, followed by her skipper Mithali Raj, who is placed ninth. Vice-captain Harmanpreet Kaur moved up two spots to occupy the 15th spot among batters while also gaining three places to reach 49th position in the bowling list. [caption id=“attachment_9424961” align=“alignnone” width=“640”]  Punam Raut moved to the 18th spot in the ICC WODI rankings after a century and two fifties in her last two appearances. Image credit: Twitter/@BCCIWomen[/caption] Left-arm spinner Rajeshwari Gayakwad gained four slots to reach 18th among bowlers with five wickets in three matches. She also advanced five places to 71st among batters. Sushma Verma, who is up three places to 81st among batters, and Mansi Joshi (up five places to 64th among bowlers) have also gained in the latest weekly update. South Africa opener Lizelle Lee has shot up seven spots to become the top-ranked batter after a fabulous run in the ongoing five-match series against India in which her team has taken a winning 3-1 lead. Lee, who displaced Tammy Beaumont within two weeks of the England batter seizing the top spot, had scores of 4, 132 not out and 69 in the three matches during the past week after having already moved from 11th to eighth the previous week with an unbeaten 83 in the series opener against India. Lee remains the only South African to top the women’s ODI batting rankings. Laura Goodall, whose career best 59 not out helped seal the decisive win in Lucknow, has gained 27 places to reach 48th position while off-spinner Nondumiso Shangase has moved up 18 places to 68th among bowlers. Ayabonga Khaka has advanced one place to ninth among bowlers and gained two slots to reach 100th among batters.