Pakistani bowler Sadia Iqbal retains top spot in women's T20I rankings

Pakistan’s left-arm spinner Sadia Iqbal has maintained her top position in the latest ICC women’s T20I bowler rankings, cricket’s global governing body announced on Tuesday.

Sadia reached the top spot of the list for T20I bowlers, with 746 rating. It's tight at the top with just 44 rating point separating the top 10 players, as the one sitting at 10th spot, Afy Fletcher, has 702 rating.

England pacer Lauren Bell claimed three wickets in that Nottingham clash and the tall right-armer rises two spots to a career-best place of fourth on the latest rankings for T20I bowlers, ICC reported.

8th ranked Nashra and 9th ranked Australia’s Georgia Wareham have the same rating — 704.

Whereas, star India left-hander closes in on the top ranking for T20I batters as a pair of South African players make gains following the completion of their series against the West Indies.

India opener Smriti Mandhana has been rewarded for her recent century against England by reaching a new career-high rating on the updated ICC Women's T20I Batter Rankings.

Mandhana, who is the No1 ranked ODI batter, took England to the sword with a superb innings of 112 in Nottingham recently and that helped the left-hander gain one place and move to third on the latest rankings for T20I batters.

It also sees Mandhana reach a new career-best rating of 771 points and close to within 23 points of No1 ranked player Beth Mooney at the top of the charts for T20I batters.

Fellow Indian opener Shafali Verma gains one place to move to 13th on the same rankings list following her innings of 20 in the same match against England, while teammate Harleen Deol re-enters the batter rankings in equal 86th after a quickfire knock of 43.

The final match of the T20I series between the West Indies and South Africa also sees a host of their players make some ground on the latest rankings, with Proteas young gun Miane Smit jumping from well outside the top 100 to 76th on the list for T20I batters following her half-century in that clash.

There are also gains for former South Africa skipper Sune Luus, who jumps nine spots to 31st on the list for T20I all-rounders following decent efforts with both bat and ball in that Cave Hill match.

Unluckily, there’s no Pakistani batter in top 35 players.