Dubai, Dec 27 (IANS): After her match-winning performance in the final T20I of the five-match series against India, Australia's Ashleigh Gardner became the No. 1 ranked allrounder in the latest ICC Womens T20I Player Rankings, released on Tuesday.
Gardner, who was named Player of the Match after her effort of 66 not out off 32 balls and a haul of two for 20, has 417 points and topped the all-rounders' list for the first time after moving up three spots. She has overtaken West Indies captain Hayley Matthews (381), India's Deepti Sharma ( 387) and New Zealand captain Sophie Devine (389), who was at the top through the past year.
On the other hand, Tahlia McGrath, up two spots to 10th (248), climbed past Stafanie Taylor (235) and compatriot Ellyse Perry (231).
Making runs in the recent T20I series against India, Gardner also jumped two spots to seventh in the batting rankings (649), over Suzie Bates (641) and Alyssa Healy (631). Australians hold the top two spots through the work of McGrath (814) and Beth Mooney (760), with India's Smriti Mandhana in third (727). Chamari Athapaththu (612) re-enters the top ten, with Jemimah Rodrigues slipping two places (607).
Deepti Sharma's 34-ball 53 against Australia sees her move up three places to 29th in the batting rankings while England's Nat Sciver and India's Richa Ghosh moved up one place each to occupy 15th and 39th positions, respectively.
Around a host of minor shuffles on the batting side, one of the biggest moves came from Grace Harris, who made the most of her inclusion on Australia's tour of India. The hard-hitter moved 33 spots to 61st (398), and India's Harleen Deol (206) climbed 26 spots as she tries to enter the top hundred.
On the bowling front, Gardner made a climb of three places to 14th, with just the one shuffle to the top ten: Shabnim Ismail moving up one spot to fifth (707) and swapping with Renuka Singh (701).
Big moves came from England's pair of Freya Davies (up 23 spots to 102nd) and Alice Davidson-Richards (up 84 spots) after a strong showing in the West Indies, and Aussie young gun Darcie Brown, who climbed six spots to a career best rating of 546. Heather Graham (up 59 spots), Charlie Dean (up 24 spots), Anjali Sarvani (up 27 spots) and Devika Vaidya (up 31 spots) enjoyed big rankings improvements outside of the top hundred.