Suburban
THE recent cancellation of the Women’s World Cup Qualifiers might have taken the glamour off the women’s cricket game but some players including Zimbabweans had already made their mark by scoring a number of personal records in the matches hosted by Zimbabwe.
Notable achievements were by the West Indies pair of Stafanie Taylor and Hayley Matthews who gained in the ODI rankings while the hosts a number of their players such as Sharne Mayers, Francisca Chipare, and Loreen Tshuma moving up the bowling rankings
West Indies captain Stafanie Taylor and opener Hayley Matthew both made gains in the women’s ODI rankings, following their performances in the recently-cancelled Women’s World Cup Qualifiers.
Taylor moved up to ninth in the women’s batting list, while holding on to fourth place in the all-rounder rankings, after she helped West Indies to a six-wicket victory against Ireland in Harare. Matthews, meanwhile, climbed to joint-eighth in the all-rounder rankings.
Stafanie Taylor
Taylor contributed with both bat and ball during West Indies’ win last week, taking the crucial wicket of Eimear Richardson on her way to finishing with 2 for 15, before scoring an unbeaten 54-ball 41 to steer a chase of 160. That performance took her to 676 ranking points in the batting list, and to 319 points in the all-rounder table, behind only Marizanne Kapp (384), Natalie Sciver (372) and Ellyse Perry (365).
In that same game, Matthews chipped in with figures of 10-3-20-2, removing Ireland captain Laura Delany and Orla Prendergast in a single over. She came out of the game with a career-best 272 ranking points in the all-rounder list, joining Katherine Brunt and Jess Jonassen in a three-way tie at eighth.
Sharne Mayers
Despite a 114-run defeat to Pakistan, a number of Zimbabwe players also made a move up the rankings. Sharne Mayers (+24), Francisca Chipare (+14) and Loreen Tshuma (+18) all shot up in the bowling rankings. For Tshuma it is another achievement to savour after she was voted Player of the Match for her 3 for 19 off 10 overs, including 2 maidens in Zimbabwe’s victory against the United States in a thrilling match between the two sides.
Loreen Tshuma
For Pakistan, Sadia Iqbal (+14), Fatima Sana (+16) and Anam Amin (+8) made the biggest gains, having taken eight of the 10 Zimbabwe wickets between them.
The women’s ODI World Cup qualifying event in Zimbabwe was called off last Saturday after travel restrictions were imposed on large parts of southern Africa following the detection of a new Covid-19 variant, called Omicron, in the region. — cricinfo.com/Suburban Reporter
