Deepti Sharma creates history, becomes World No.1 T20I bowler for first time, Mandhana loses top spot
Deepti Sharma has become the No.1 T20I bowler for the very first time as she replaced Australia's Annabel Sutherland at the top spot. Meanwhile, Smriti Mandhana has lost her No.1 spot in the ODI rankings for batters to Laura Wolvaardt.
India star all-rounder Deepti Sharma has created history by becoming the new World No.1 T20I bowler for the very first time. Deepti took the top spot from Australia fast bowler Annabel Sutherland after her exploits in the first T20I against Sri Lanka on Sunday, December 21.
Deepti put in an impressive performance with the ball in India's dominant win over the Sri Lankan side at the ACA-VDCA Stadium in Visakhapatnam. The star all-rounder bowled a pretty mingy spell for 20 runs in her four overs and also took the wicket of No.3 Hasini Perera in the game.
This saw her leapfrog Sutherland to the top of the rankings with 737 rating points, one more than that of the Aussie speedster.
Wolvaardt replaces Mandhana at the top in ODI batters' tally
Meanwhile, there was another change in the top spot in the women's game with South African captain Laura Wolvaardt replacing India vice-captain Smriti Mandhana as the No.1 ODI batter in the world.
Wolvaardt was in red-hot form during the home white-ball series against Ireland and struck back-to-back centuries in the second and third ODIs in her team's 3-0 win over the Irish side. These knocks saw Wolvaardt displacing Mandhana at the top of the ODI rankings with 820 rating points, nine more than that of the Indian star opener.