ICC Rankings: India's Smriti Mandhana Continues To Remain Top Batter Following 88-Run Knock Against England

ICC Ranking: Despite India's narrow loss against England in the ICC ODI World Cup match, the team's batting mainstay Smriti Mandhana has continued to strengthen her position as a top batter in the latest update released on Tuesday. Notably, Mandhana played a stellar hand of 88 runs against England. However, the half-century went in vain as England secured a 7-run win against the hosts to qualify for the semi-final.

Interestingly, England captain Nat Sciver-Brunt is on second spot with 191 runs in the tournament so far.

Recently, Mandhana also clinched the ICC Women's Player Of The Month Award for September courtesy of her incredible form of late. In the ODI series against Australia before the World Cup, she scored two brilliant hundreds. One of the hundreds in the series came in just 50 balls as she broke the record of talisman Virat Kohli (52 balls).

Also Read: Naqvi continues to show frustration as ACC president

Collapse Started With Me: Mandhana

During the ODI WC match against England, India required just six runs an over in their last 10 overs. However, what followed was a collapse of epic proportions, which helped England regain control.

Asked about the reason behind the collapse, Mandhana said, "Yeah, for sure, I mean it collapsed; everyone saw that. I think everyone's shot selections at that time -- we could have done better with our shot selections. Especially, it started from me, so I will take it on me that the shot selection should have been better. We just needed six per over. Maybe we should have taken the game deeper. So yeah, I mean I'll take it from myself because the collapse started from me," as quoted from ICC.

The question of whether the finishing effort was overly dependent on Richa Ghosh was also addressed by the India opener.

Also Read: Rishabh Pant's comeback date confirmed

Mandhana clarified, "I mean, of course Richa has been good for us, but I wouldn't say that it's only dependent on her. We just needed 6.5 per over, it's not like we needed 9 per over. The finishing part was a lot to ask but we've seen Aman (Amanjot Kaur) do that in WPL (Women's Premier League), and as well as Sneh (Rana) has been brilliant in the last 4-5 overs with a bat for us in the first 3-4 matches. So, I wouldn't say that especially this one that it was only dependent on one player. We'll all take it in like; we'll take it on ourselves that we could have actually done better in the last six odd overs."

India are currently on the fourth spot with 2 wins in the tournament.