West Indies joins world number-one Australia on the top of the ICC Women’s Championship

Lahore: Following its 3-0 win over Pakistan in St Lucia on Saturday, the West Indies has joined world number-one Australia on the top of the ICC Women’s Championship table.
Stafanie Taylor’s side has leapfrogged South Africa and is now level with Australia on 16 points. However, both Australia and South Africa have played one less round of matches. In their fourth round matches next year, Australia will host India and South Africa will host England.

The ICC Women’s Championship is a qualifying tournament for the ICC Women’s World Cup 2017 and is being participated by Australia, England, India, New Zealand Pakistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka and West Indies. The top four sides from the ICC Women’s Championship will obtain automatic qualification for the event proper to be staged in England, while the bottom four sides will get a final chance of qualification through the ICC Women’s World Cup Qualifier in 2017.

The tournament structure sees each team will play each other in one home or away series that will include three ODIs over a two and a half year period. As such, each side is guaranteed, at least, 21 ODIs over the tournament period.

Pakistan played four ODIs against the West Indies on the tour and though it won the opening match of the series, only the last three matched counted towards the ICC Women’s Championship. Nevertheless, all four matches count towards the ICC Women’s Team Rankings, which has seen no changes to their pre-series rankings except that both have gained one point each. The ICC Women’s Team Rankings will now be updated at the conclusion of the three-match T20I series, which will be played in St George’s, Grenada, from 29 October to 1 November.

Reflecting on the series victory in the aftermath of Saturday’s win, former West Indies fast bowler and women’s team coach Vasbert Drakes said: “I thought that we executed really well throughout the series and recognised the importance of trying to dominate this game, and we did that really well.

“The consistency in everyone was a highlight. Merissa Aguilleira improved tremendously batting at number-five, while Stafanie (Taylor) showed again why she’s the best player in the world. She dominated again and led from the front. Kyshona (Knight) bowled well and Shamilia (Connell) bowled really fast and consistent.

“It was a collective effort with everyone contributing as a group. Going forward we know that we still have a lot of work to do but we can look forward to the South African leg.”

The West Indies won the opening match of the ICC Women’s Championship by three wickets and then took an assailable 2-0 lead by winning the second match by 109 runs. It swept the series with a six wicket win.

The West Indies’ dominance is also reflected in the last ICC Women’s ODI Player Rankings, which has seen a number of its players move in the right direction.

Taylor has claimed three places to third in the ICC Women’s ODI Player Rankings for Batters, while there were notable gains for Nain Abidi (up six places to 25th), Merissa Aguilleira (up 14 places to 28th), Asmavia Iqbal (up six places to a career-high 42nd), Britney Cooper (up 16 places to 71st) and Aliya Riaz (up 12 places to 100th).

In the ICC Women’s ODI Player Rankings for Bowlers, Anisa Mohammed has retained her second place behind runaway leader Jhulan Goswami of India, while 24-year-old skipper Taylor has dropped one place to fourth. There was better news for Tremayne Smartt who has vaulted four places to 14th.

Stafanie Taylor continues to lead the all-rounders’ tables and holds a 65-point advantage over Australia’s Ellyse Perry.

 

ICC Women’s Team Rankings (after the conclusion of West Indies-Pakistan ODIs. The table will again be updated their 3-match T20I series, which ends on 1 November)

Ranking Team Points

1 Australia 134

2 England 124

3 New Zealand 109

4 India 105

5 West Indies 100

6 South Africa 92

7 Pakistan 82

8 Sri Lanka 74

9 Bangladesh 57

10 Ireland 26