Namibia’s JJ Smit and Nepal’s Dipendra Singh Airee have led an Associate charge on the ICC’s T20I player rankings, both making significant jumps in this week’s updates.
Finishing Player of the Series in his side’s home tri-series with PNG and Malaysia, Airee was also Player of the Match in the final, making 54* and taking 4/18.
It capped off a stellar week for the 22-year-old, scoring 255 runs at 85.00 and a strike rate of 171, alongside his seven wickets. As a result, he rose 13 spots to No.38 for batters, 47 spots to No.135 for bowlers and 10 spots to No.10 for all-rounders.
A similar individual effort from Smit in Namibia’s T20I series against Uganda meant he broke into the top five for all-rounders, having entered the top ten back at the 2021 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup.
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Smit claimed six of his eight series wickets in the series deciding match, also taking a hat-trick to consign the Cricket Cranes to 133 all out, 52 runs short of Namibia’s 185. Smit top-scored with the bat earlier in the day, smashing seven sixes in a knock of 71 off 35 balls. Smit also moved up 29 spots to 68th in the batting category, and six spots to 65th on the bowling side.
In other movements Aasif Sheikh rose an incredible 73 spots on the batting rankings list thanks to his 185 series runs, while PNG’s Sese Bau, Charles Amini and Norman Vanua moved up 28, 25 and 24 spots respectively on the same table. Vanua also crept into the top 20 on the all-rounder rankings table, up four spots.
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