Sri Lanka's captain Chamari Athapaththu created history on Tuesday when she became the first Sri Lankan woman to be honoured with World No.1 ranking in the ICC Batting charts. Athapaththu's fabulous knocks in Sri Lanka's historic series win over New Zealand have paid off in a big way as she makes a massive jump in the ODI rankings to dethrone the Aussie star Beth Mooney from the pinnacle spot. She is only the second from her country alongside former men's player Sanath Jayasuriya to take the top spot in the ODI batting charts.
Athapaththu ended the three-game series with 248 runs against her name including two centuries. She was by a fair margin the top scorer in the series which was Sri Lanka women's first ODI series win over the White Ferns. Athapaththu made 140* in the first ODI in just 80 balls and 108* in the third one. The Sri Lanka captain was a victim of a golden duck in the second outing.
Athapaththu pips these batters
On her six place rise from No.7, Athapaththu has left behind many other big names. She has leapfrogged Smriti Mandhana, Harmanpreet Kaur, Meg Lanning, Natalie Sciver, Laura Wolvaardt and Beth Mooney in a single jump.