Australia women’s extend advantage over England following annual update by International Cricket Council

DateLine: 4th October 2016

 

The Australia women’s side has opened up a six-point gap over its closest rival England, while New Zealand, West Indies and Ireland have also gained valuable points following the 1 October annual update of the MRF Tyres ICC Women’s Team Rankings, which incorporates results in all three formats into a single rankings system.

 

The annual rankings update is carried out to ensure the table continues to reflect the recent form of the women’s sides. As such, results from October 2012 to September 2013 have been discarded in the new table, while results between October 2013 and September 2015 are now weighted at 50 per cent whereas results from October 2016 until September 2017 will be weighted at 100 per cent.

 

In the new calculations, Meg Lanning’s Australia has retained top position on 128 points but England has slipped from 124 points to 122 points. This means the two sides are now separated by six points.

 

New Zealand has collected three points, which means Suzie Bates’ side has now reduced the gap with Heather Knight’s England from nine points to four points.

 

ICC Women’s World Twenty20 reigning champion the West Indies have also gained in the latest update. Stafanie Taylor’s side has collected three points, which has put it at par with India on 107 points but behind Mithali Raj’s side by a fraction of a point.

 

Ireland has moved up three points to 38, but Pakistan and Bangladesh have dropped one point apiece and Sri Lanka has conceded two points.

 

Sixth-ranked South Africa has retained its position and rating of 90 points following the update.

 

The top five sides are now separated 21 points. With a lot of women’s cricket to be played in the coming weeks in relation to the ICC Women’s Championship, which is a qualifying tournament for next year’s ICC Women’s World Cup 2017, a reshuffle in the team rankings could potentially be on the cards as the sides will be striving hard to claim automatic qualification for the biggest event in women’s cricket.

 

MRF Tyres ICC Women’s Rankings (as on 4 October, following the annual update)

 

Rank Team Points
1. Australia 128 (-)
2. England 122 (-2)
3. New Zealand 118 (+3)
4. India 107 (-)
5. West Indies 107 (+3)
6. South Africa 90 (-)
7. Pakistan 79 (-1)
8. Sri Lanka 68 (-2)
9. Bangladesh 43 (-1)
10. Ireland 38 (+3)

 

(Article: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author only.
Copyright © 2016 International Cricket Council)