Smriti Mandhana touches career-best ranking points; holds third place in ICC rankings
Dubai, (PTI): India opener Smriti Mandhana has reached a career-best 741 points as she continues to maintain her third position in the latest ICC Women's T20I Player Rankings for batters released on Tuesday.
The Player of the Match in the second T20I against Australia, which ended in a tie before India won in the Super Over, gained 11 rating points to reach the landmark.
Australia's Tahlia McGrath is the new No.1 in the rankings following her superb performances in the first two matches of the ongoing series against India underway in Mumbai.
The 27-year-old Australian had unbeaten knocks of 40 and 70 and overtook compatriots Meg Lanning and Beth Mooney as well as Mandhana to become the fourth Australian and 12th batter to top the women's T20I rankings, according to ICC.
Mooney had been at the top since August 3 this year when she overtook Lanning.
McGrath is No. 1 after only 16 matches. The last woman to reach the top in fewer matches was West Indies' Stafanie Taylor in 2010 (15 matches) while India opener Shafali Verma has been the fastest in recent years, reaching the top ranking after 18 matches.
Two more India batters, Shafali and Jemimah Rodriques, also figure in the list of top-10 T20I batters, with the former gaining a spot to be at sixth position.
In the T20I ranking for bowlers, India's Deepti Sharma and Renuka Singh Thakur have maintained their third and fourth spots respectively, with England leg-spinner Sarah Glenn up one place to second behind compatriot Sophie Ecclestone.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Russian President Putin signs new doctrine that lowers threshold for using nuclear weapons
Moscow, Nov 19: Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday signed a revised nuclear doctrine declaring that a conventional attack on Russia by any nation that is supported by a nuclear power will be considered a joint attack on his country.
Putin's endorsement of the new nuclear deterrent policy comes on the 1,000th day after he sent troops into Ukraine on Feb 24, 2022.
It follows US President Joe Biden's decision to let Ukraine strike targets inside Russia with US-supplied longer-range missiles.
The signing of the doctrine, which says that any massive aerial attack on Russia could trigger a nuclear response, reflects Putin's readiness to threaten use of the country's nuclear arsenal to force the West to back down as Moscow presses a slow-moving offensive in Ukraine.
Asked about whether the updated doctrine was deliberately issued on the heels of the US' decision to ease restrictions on Ukraine using its longer-range missiles to strike Russia, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said the document was published “in a timely manner” and that Putin instructed the government to update it earlier this year so that it is “in line with the current situation”.
Putin first announced changes in the nuclear doctrine in September, when he chaired a meeting discussing the proposed revisions.
The new version of the document states that an attack against his country by a nonnuclear power with the “participation or support of a nuclear power” will be seen as their “joint attack on the Russian Federation”.
It doesn't specify whether such an attack would necessarily trigger a nuclear response. It mentions the “uncertainty of scale, time and place of possible use of nuclear deterrent” among the key principles of the nuclear deterrence.
At the same time, it spells out conditions for using nuclear weapons in greater detail compared to the previous version of the doctrine, noting they could be used in case of a massive air attack involving ballistic and cruise missiles, aircraft, drones and other flying vehicles.
The wide formulation appears to significantly broaden the triggers for possible nuclear weapons use compared with the previous version of the document, which stated that Russia could tap its atomic arsenal if “reliable information is received about the launch of ballistic missiles targeting the territory of Russia or its allies”.
The revised doctrine envisages that Russia could use nuclear weapons in response to aggression against its ally Belarus.
Belarus' authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko, who has ruled the country with an iron hand for more than 30 years, has relied on Russian subsidies and support. He has let Russia use his country's territory to send troops into Ukraine and allowed the Kremlin to deploy some of its tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus.
