ICC Rankings: Smriti Mandhana maintains top spot, Mithali Raj fifth

India opener Smriti Mandhana maintained her pole position while ODI skipper Mithali Raj remained fifth in the latest ICC ODI Players' Ranking issued on February 18. Mandhana is leading the pack with 774 rating points ahead of Australia pair of Ellyse Perry and Meg Lanning.

New Zealand's Amy Satterthwaite is placed fourth, just ahead of Raj. The other Indians to feature in top 20 are Deepti Sharma, who jumped a place to 17th and Twenty20 skipper Harmanpreet Kaur at 19th.

West Indies captain Stafanie Taylor has advanced two places and grabbed eighth position among batters even as a number of players from Pakistan and South Africa have also moved up in the ICC Women's ODI Player Rankings after winning their respective ICC Women's Championship series.

Taylor led the list of run-getters with an aggregate of 158, including two fifties, in a 2-1 loss here that enabled Pakistan to overtake the West Indies in the points table of the eight-team championship. It provides direct qualification berths to hosts New Zealand and four other top teams in the ICC Women's Cricket World Cup 2021.

South Africa have kept in contention for a direct berth in the pinnacle event by completing a 3-0 triumph at home over Sri Lanka, a verdict that has helped them to catch up with the fifth-placed West Indies on 11 points, even though they remain behind on net run rate.

Pakistan's victory over the West Indies has lifted them to 12 points and they are now in the fourth position, just behind India on the net run rate in the list led by Australia with 16 points from only nine matches and New Zealand second at 14 points from 12.

Among bowlers, veteran pacer Jhulan Goswami is the best-placed Indian at the third spot behind Megan Schutt of Australia and Pakistan's Sana Mir, who is leading the pack.

Deepti Sharma and Poonam Yadav are two other Indian bowlers figuring at the top-10 at eighth and ninth positions respectively.

Deepti also features in the all-rounders chart at a career-high third spot. Perry is at the pinnacle of the list followed by West Indies' Taylor.

No Indian woman has reached the top spot among all-rounders as all the former captains --- Goswami (in July 2015), Purnima Rau (December 2000) and Shubhangi Kulkarni (January 1986) have attained the second position.

The upcoming India-England series can be crucial in the final standings while defending champions Australia host second-placed New Zealand in another series that also starts on February 23.