India’s vice-captain, Smriti Mandhana, played really well in the first one-day cricket game against South Africa. She scored her sixth hundred in this type of game. Because of her great batting, India won the first game by 143 runs and got ahead in the three-game series. Mandhana was named the best player of the match for her performance and has moved up in the latest rankings by the International Cricket Council for one-day games.
The left-handed batter has moved up two spots to reach third place in the rankings, with 715 points. Nat Sciver-Brunt is now the top batter in the rankings. Chamari Athpaththu used to be number one, but she did poorly against the West Indies at home and lost her top spot. Laura Wolvaardt, the captain of South Africa, dropped two places to fifth after scoring just four runs in the first one-day international match.
Regarding the bowlers, Deepti Sharma has moved up to fourth place in the recent rankings for the 50-over format. She achieved this after taking 2 wickets for just 10 runs in her 6 overs. She now has 664 points, which is only 12 points behind the third-placed Kate Cross. Meanwhile, Sophie Ecclestone, England’s left-arm spinner, remains at the top of the rankings.
Coming back to Smriti, she was very happy that her hundred helped the team win and shared her thoughts during her innings. “We won the game, and I’m glad I could help. It’s crucial to start the tournament strong, and we scored over 100 runs, which is great. Like I mentioned before, it was challenging not to hit the ball in the air and instead play ground shots. We’ve played a lot of T20 cricket, and today we needed partnerships. I want to thank Deepti and Pooja for their contributions.”
“I was managing the game. In one-day and white-ball cricket, sometimes one or two batters will lead the team. My job was to stay in the game, and once I reached 30-40 runs, No one got out after getting settled, which I was assigned to,” she explained after the match.
