India vice-captain Smriti Mandhana shined in the first ODI against South Africa smashing her sixth century in the format. Thanks to her knock, India managed to win the series opener by 143 runs and took an early lead in the three-match series. Mandhana won the player of the match for her efforts and has also been benefitted in the latest ICC Rankings in the ODI format.
The left-handed batter has climbed two places to third position in the rankings with 715 rating points to her name while Nat Sciver-Brunt has been crowned the top batter in the rankings. Chamari Athpaththu was on top of the charts earlier but her failure against the West Indies at home cost her big time. South Africa skipper Laura Wolvaardt has slipped two places to fifth after mustering only four runs in the first ODI.
As far as the bowlers are concerned, Deepti Sharma has jumped to fourth place in the latest rankings in the 50-over format after returning with figures of 2/10 in hier six overs. She has 664 points and only 12 behind the third placed Kate Cross while Sophie Ecclestone, England's left-arm spinner, continues to be at numbero uno position in the rankings.
Coming back to Smriti, she was delighted her century came in a winning cause for the team and also opened up on her mindset during the innings. "We won the match so really happy that I could contribute, important to start the tournament well, we got 100+ win, nothing better than that. As I said earlier, it was really a task not to go aerial and go for the grounded shots, we have played a lot of T20 cricket, today the need was for partnerships, credit to Deepti and Pooja for getting those.
It was playing the situation. In one-day cricket and white-ball cricket, there will be days when one or two batters will carry the team. My role was to take it deep, once I was set, having got to 30-40. I don't think anyone got out after getting set and that was the role given to me," she said after the match.
