Jess Jonassen, Megan Schutt make it an Australian one-two

Jess Jonassen, Australia’s left-arm spinner, rose to the top of the MRF Tyres ICC Women’s ODI Player Rankings for bowlers after a fruitful series against India, where she picked up eight wickets in three matches.

Jonassen had a career-best 676 points to be No.1 on the rankings announced on 19 March, ahead of fellow Australian Megan Schutt.

The Australian charge pushed South Africa’s Marizanne Kapp and India’s Jhulan Goswami, who did not feature in the series owing to injury, to third and fourth place respectively.

Jonassen and Amanda-Jade Wellington, the leg-spinner, made best use of the conditions in Vadodara and got the wickets after the pacers did the job of containing the batters.

"Coming over to India as a spinner is always an exciting time. For me, I'm just happy I've been able to contribute to the team's success," said Jonassen.

Schutt, Australia’s new-ball bowler, picked up only four wickets in the series, which Australia wrapped up 3-0, but she stood out in the first two matches for consistently building pressure. Her economy rate in the series was a miserly 3.87. In the second match, three of her first four overs were maidens.

“She’s been our strike bowler. She really sets the tone for us early. She’s playing on a different wicket at times. She just puts so much pressure on the batters,” said her teammate Ellyse Perry.

The Australians were the biggest gainers in the bowlers’ and all-rounders’ charts. Ashleigh Gardner rose 13 places among bowlers to be 23rd, and 18 places to be 27th among all-rounders.

Shelley Nitschke, the former left-arm spinner and an Australian legend, who is on the support staff, was all praise for Gardner. "Ash just gets a lot of revs on the ball and is really able to bowl into the wickets here and gets a fair bit of bite – spin but also bounce. For a finger spinner, she can be quite a handful. She could wreck some havoc on these wickets if she gets it right,” she said.