Early in 2018, Indian cricketing legend Mithali Raj spoke at the second annual ICC Women’s Cricket Forum and had a very important point to make. Expressing hope that women’s cricket in India can build on the momentum the team had created with their superb run to the World Cup final in 2017, Raj had said that these were good times for women’s cricket.

“There is no longer any ignorance about the women’s game, cricket talk is not limited to the men’s game or amongst men’s fans. The reach is now there, so the common man can see women’s cricket and we are breaking viewership records and it is important we continue that interest.”

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That, perhaps, sums up the growth of the women’s game in the past 10 years. Increased broadcast, central contracts for the top players and good stadium attendances have seen women’s cricket take important strides with Australia, New Zealand, England and India leading the way in most aspects.

Graphic courtesy: BCCI Women / Twitter

The lack of women’s Test cricket apart from the Ashes series between England and Australia at the present is one of the aspects that has been disappointing for followers of the game. The eight long-format games played in the 2010s is the least in the past five decades, according to ESPNCricinfo and only two of those (England vs India and India vs South Africa played in 2014) were not between the game’s traditional rivals.

But the game seems to be moving in a new direction, with clear focus on marketing the shorter formats and hugely successful 2017 ODI World Cup in England and the standalone World T20 in 2018 in the Caribbean were a culmination of those efforts.

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In this review of the 2010s, we will look back at the leading performances in the white-ball formats of the women’s game:

Team records

When it comes to the ICC events, there is one team that simply dominated the standings: out of the seven world events, Australia won five titles and made it to six finals. The only event that they did not make it to the summit clash was in 2017, thanks to a generation-defining innings by Harmanpreet Kaur in 2017 which is the highest score of all time in any ODI World Cup knockout event. And their response? To reset their ambitions and bounce back with some vengeance at the first ever standalone World T20 in 2018. In the meantime, they have furthered strengthened the domestic structure of their game and leading the way for remuneration in the game.

England are expectedly the second-most successful side at the global stage while India captured the imagination of the country with their run to the final in 2017, the tournament Raj and Kaur have credited as a turning point for women’s cricket.

ICC events in this decade (ODIs)

Event Winners Runners-up
2013 World Cup Australia  West Indies
2017 World Cup England  India

ICC events in this decade (T20Is)

Event Winners Runners-up
2010 World T20 Australia New Zealand
2012 World T20 Australia England
2014 World T20 Australia England
2016 World T20 West Indies Australia
2016 World T20 (Standalone event) Australia England

England and Australia take the the top two spots (orders interchanged) for the overall win/loss ratio in the white-ball formats in 2010s. While India are significantly better in the 50-over format, T20I success still remains elusive on a significant scale. Even though Harmanpreet Kaur’s side made a superb run to the semi-finals of the 2018 World T20, the tournament was marred by the Mithali Raj-Ramesh Powar saga.

Best W/L ratio in ODIs this decade

Team Mat Won Lost Tied NR W/L
Australia 97 81 14 1 1 5.785
England 110 73 34 0 3 2.147
India 99 61 38 0 0 1.605
South Africa 115 61 48 2 4 1.270
West Indies 105 50 52 0 3 0.961
New Zealand 103 46 56 0 1 0.821
Pakistan 94 35 56 1 2 0.625
Sri Lanka 93 19 70 0 4 0.271
Min 50 matches played

Best W/L ratio in T20Is this decade

Team Mat Won Lost Tied NR W/L
England 113 83 27 2 1 3.074
Australia 112 73 38 1 0 1.921
New Zealand 99 60 37 1 1 1.621
West Indies 115 60 48 5 2 1.250
India 107 58 47 0 2 1.234
South Africa 91 44 45 0 2 0.977
Pakistan 107 44 59 3 1 0.745
Bangladesh 71 27 44 0 0 0.613
Ireland  65 18 46 0 1 0.391
Sri Lanka 93 22 67 0 4 0.328
Min 50 matches played

Batting stars of the decade

The names that you would expect to, dominate the batting charts in both formats. Mithali Raj is India’s best performer with the bat as she appears in all the tables below, signifying her strong influence over Indian cricket as she completed two decades in the game herself. Stafanie Taylor, the current Windies captain, leads the chart for run-scorers in ODIs while New Zealand star Suzie Bates features prominently across both formats.

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Meg Lanning, too, has been a batter and captain par excellence for Australia and has been a big part of the team’s dominance. In T20Is, Kaur is making her way to the top and is surely on her way to be one of the best in the game as she showed with her sensational century against New Zealand in the curtain-raiser for World T20 2018. And her name is absent from the lists for the past decade, don’t be surprised if Smriti Mandhana emerges as the torch-bearer for Indian cricket (and the women’s game in general) in the years to come.

Top run-getters in ODIs this decade

Player Inns Runs HS Ave 100s 50s
Stafanie Taylor 99 3993 171 45.89 4 32
Meg Lanning 80 3693 152* 52.75 13 14
Suzie Bates 91 3621 151 45.26 8 23
Mihali Raj 86 3339 125* 54.73 5 25
Amy Satterthwaite 90 3296 137* 42.80 6 19
Heather Knight 96 2800 106 37.83 1 19
Mignon du Preez 105 2735 116* 30.05 2 10
Ellyse Perry 66 2711 112* 66.12 2 26
Chamari Atapattu 84 2625 178* 31.62 5 14
Javeria Khan 89 2586 133* 33.58 2 15

Most 50-plus scores in ODIs this decade

Player Inns Runs Ave 100s 50-plus scores
Stafanie Taylor 99 3993 45.89 4 36
Suzie Bates 91 3621 45.26 8 31
Mithali Raj 86 3339 54.73 5 30
Ellyse Perry 66 2711 66.12 2 28
Meg Lanning 80 3693 52.75 13 27

Top run-getters in T20Is this decade

Player Inns Runs Ave 100s 50s
Suzie Bates 95 2756 30.96 1 19
Stafanie Taylor 90 2639 35.66 0 18
Meg Lanning 89 2580 36.85 2 13
Mithali Raj 78 2194 37.18 0 16
Deandra Dottin 96 2175 27.18 2 8
Bismah Maroof 96 2109 27.38 0 10
Harmanpreet Kaur 90 2030 28.59 1 6
Charlotte Edwards 75 1986 31.03 0 8
Sophie Devine 72 1882 29.40 0 10

Most 50-plus scores in T20Is this decade

Player Innings Runs HS Ave 100s 50+
Suzie Bates 95 2756 124* 30.96 1 20
Stafanie Taylor 90 2639 90 35.66 0 18
Mithali Raj 78 2194 97* 37.18 0 16
Meg Lanning 89 2580 133* 36.85 2 15
Sarah Taylor 73 1877 77 29.79 0 14

Bowling chart-toppers

Anisa Mohammed, the West Indies veteran, tops the chart for wicket-takers in both white-ball formats. While Jhulan Goswami has long been the flag-bearer for Indian bowling in ODIs, the emergence of Poonam Yadav (and her support cast of spinners) has been more prominent in the T20Is.

And finally, the only name to feature prominently on almost all of the tables here: Ellyse Perry. The Australian all-rounder, who became the first player (male or female) to score 1000 runs and take 100 wickets in T20Is, has emerged as the superstar of the game for this generation, breaking records for fun with both bat and ball. It can be argued that there is no single woman in the game right now who is as important to her side in all departments as Perry is for Australia.

Top wicket-takers in ODIs this decade

Player Inns Wkts Best figures Ave SR 4
Anisa Mohammed 89 129 7/14 19.31 32.6 6
Shabnim Ismail 80 123 6/10 19.15 32.0 4
Sana Mir 88 120 5/32 23.70 37.8 6
Marizanne Kapp 99 118 4/14 23.51 38.6 3
Dane van Niekerk  89 117 5/17 19.96 33.6 6
Jhulan Goswami 82 116 6/31 20.37 35.3 3
Ellyse Perry 80 116 7/22 23.62 32.7 1
Stafanie Taylor 95 115 4/19 21.93 37.0 4
Katherine Brunt 82 110 5/18 22.55 37.5 2
Jess Jonassen 68 101 5/27 20.78 31.1 5

Top wicket-takers in T20Is this decade

Player Inns Wkts Best figures Ave SR 4
Anisa Mohammed 95 102 5/12 18.35 19.6 3
Ellyse Perry 98 97 4/12 19.31 19.7 2
Nida Dar 93 92 5/21 17.82 20.2 1
Danielle Hazell 83 85 4/12 20.16 21.8 1
Shabmin Ismail 77 85 5/30 18.08 19.2 0
Poonam Yadav 62 85 4/9 14.68 15.6 2
Anya Shrubsole 65 85 5/11 14.56 15.3 2
Sana Mir 99 80 4/13 24.91 26.8 3
Stafanie Taylor 70 74 4/12 17.47 18.6 1
Sophie Devine 61 72 4/22 16.16 15.4 1

(All statistics courtesy ESPNCricinfo Statsguru)