Dubai, 7 April 2008SA fast bowler takes just 22 matches to reach number one; Hussey replaces Sangakkara at top of batting list; India must win final Test to stay second on Test Championship table
South Africa pacer Dale Steyn has moved to the top of the ICC Player Rankings for Test bowlers after another wonderful display of fast bowling in India .
The 24-year-old from Phalaborwa has enjoyed a rapid rise in the rankings since making his debut against England in Port Elizabeth at the end of 2004. Since then he has taken 117 wickets in just 41 innings at an average of 21.41, including another eight scalps during the second Test in Ahmedabad, which his team won by an innings and 90 runs.
Steyn now has 897 ratings points and is level with Sri Lanka ’s Muttiah Muralidaran, who has been top of the bowlers’ list since February 2006. Indeed, the iconic spinner has not been out of the top five bowlers since mid-2000. He has now, however, dropped below 900 ratings points for the first time since June 2006.
Steyn now ranks 22nd in the all-time list of Test bowlers, 12 places behind the career best of compatriot Shaun Pollock but ahead of other great South African bowlers such as Allan Donald and Hugh Tayfield, who are both ranked in joint-26th position.
With one more Test left in the current series in India , Steyn has the opportunity to go top of the table on his own and also to become just the 20th bowler in the history of Test cricket to pass the magic 900-point mark in the ratings.
Other bowlers to have peaked at 897 ratings points include Ray Lindwall of Australia , Jim Laker of England and the West Indies ’ Lance Gibbs, putting Steyn in some pretty impressive company.
What makes Steyn stand out from the rest is that he has taken just 22 matches to reach the top. By contrast, it took Pollock 33 matches to do it and Donald 41.
The news is not so good for Sri Lanka ’s Kumar Sangakkara, who has slipped from the top of the ICC Player Rankings for Test batsmen after a relatively disappointing two-Test series in the West Indies .
His place at the top is taken by Australia ’s Michael Hussey, who is currently the only batsman in the world with more than 900 ratings points. As Hussey is still qualifying for a full rating, his points tally at the top is likely to continue to rise when he next plays Test cricket, scheduled to be against the West Indies in May.
It is very congested at the top of the batting list with just 32 ratings points separating Hussey at the top and Mohammad Yousuf of Pakistan in fifth position. Ricky Ponting of Australia and South Africa ’s Jacques Kallis share second spot, with Sangakkara fourth.
Kallis will be pushing Hussey all the way in the third and final Test against India at Kanpur and if he can reproduce the sort of performance that saw him score 132 in Ahmedabad, he could even take over at the top.
Kallis’s team-mate AB de Villiers achieved a career-best rating following his unbeaten double-century against India . The 24-year-old is now in 21st position and will be eyeing a place in the top 20 as a realistic goal for the third Test.
Proteas captain Graeme Smith is up one spot to 14th while several India batsmen, including Virender Sehwag, Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman, suffer the slide after a forgettable Test match from their point of view.
The news is better for India spinner Harbhajan Singh, who has moved back into the top 20 in the ICC Player Rankings for Test bowlers. He took four wickets in the only SA innings of the match and moved up four places in the rankings, past Kallis, Umar Gul of Pakistan and New Zealand ’s Daniel Vettori.
More positive news for India is that Irfan Pathan has moved into the top five in the ICC Player Rankings for Test all-rounders after being one of the few players in his team that put up a resistance against the South African onslaught in Ahmedabad.
After a match-winning innings of 86 not out against Sri Lanka in Port-of-Spain, Shivnarine Chanderpaul has moved up two places to joint-seventh position along with Mahela Jayawardena of Sri Lanka. Ramnaresh Sarwan, who shared a crucial 157-run partnership with Chanderpaul, has moved up eight places to 22nd position after his magnificent 102 under enormous pressure.
Meanwhile, Sri Lanka has slipped two places to fifth position on the ICC Test Championship table after only managing to draw the two-match series with the West Indies . Jayawardena’s team lost three ratings points after the series ended 1-1 and such is the congested nature of the table at present, it meant that it slipped down below South Africa and England, which are now lying in third and fourth positions, respectively.
Good news for the West Indies is that it has narrowed the gap in the Test Championship to 14 points between itself and New Zealand . Prior to England ’s 2-1 series win over the Black Caps and the West Indies’ drawn series with Sri Lanka , there were 20 points separating NZ in seventh spot and the men from the Caribbean in eighth.
India must win the third Test against South Africa if it is to avoid losing its second position in the table to the visitors. If Anil Kumble’s team draws or loses the match, which begins in Kanpur on Friday, it will drop two full places to fourth from its current position in second.
The ICC Test Championship table is updated only at the end of each series.
LG’s four-year sponsorship of ICC Player and Team Rankings ended on 31 March and the new sponsor will be announced in due course.
ICC Test Championship (as of 7 April)
Rank Teams Rating
1 Australia 141
2 India 111
3 South Africa 109
4 England 108
5 Sri Lanka 106
6 Pakistan 94
7 New Zealand 91
8 West Indies 77
9 Bangladesh 1
ICC Test Rankings (as of 7 April)
Batsmen
Rank (+/-) Player Team Points Ave HS Rating
1 (+1) Mike Hussey Aus 912*! 78.14 912 v Ind at Adelaide 2008
2= (+1) Ricky Ponting Aus 899 58.53 942 v Eng at Adelaide 2006
(+2) Jacques Kallis SA 899 57.73 935 v NZ at Centurion 2007
4 (-3) K.C.Sangakkara SL 893 55.19 938 v Eng at Kandy 2007
5 (-1) Mhd Yousuf Pak 880 55.49 933 v WI at Karachi 2006
6 ( - ) Matthew Hayden Aus 860 53.51 935 v Eng at Brisbane 2002
7= (+2) S.Chanderpaul WI 810 47.24 838 v SA at Cape Town 2008
( - ) M.Jayawardena SL 810 51.93 844 v WI at Guyana 2008
9 (-1) Younis Khan Pak 799 49.14 856 v Eng at Leeds 2006
10 ( - ) Kevin Pietersen Eng 784 49.74 909 v WI at Leeds 2007
11 ( - ) Michael Clarke Aus 744 46.45 761 v Ind at Melbourne 2007
12 (+2) S.R.Tendulkar Ind 711 55.31 898 v Zim at Nagpur 2002
13 (-1) Virender Sehwag Ind 702 52.56 854 v SA at Kolkata 2004
14 (+1) Graeme Smith SA 700 48.51 756 v NZ at Wellington 2004
15 (-2) Rahul Dravid Ind 697 54.92 892 v Pak at Kolkata 2005
16 ( - ) Alastair Cook Eng 679 43.46 711 v SL at Galle 2007
17 (+1) Ian Bell Eng 674 43.15 684 v SL at Kandy 2007
18 (+1) P.D.Collingwood Eng 668 42.54 730 v Aus at Adelaide 2006
19 (-2) VVS Laxman Ind 660 43.77 753 v Aus at Sydney 2004
20 (+1) Andrew Symonds Aus 656* 41.24 666 v Ind at Perth 2008
Bowlers
Rank (+/-) Player Team Points Ave Econ HS Rating
1= ( - ) M.Muralidaran SL 897 21.95 920 v Ban at Kandy 2007
(+1) Dale Steyn SA 897 ! 21.41 897 v Ind at Ahmedabad 2008
3 ( - ) Stuart Clark Aus 829* 21.88 843 v Ind at Perth 2008
4 ( - ) Brett Lee Aus 795 ! 29.97 795 v Ind at Adelaide 2008
5 ( - ) Makhaya Ntini SA 789 27.78 863 v Ind at Durban 2006
6 ( - ) Anil Kumble Ind 715 29.06 859 v SL at Bangalore 1994
7 ( - ) Chaminda Vaas SL 709 29.09 800 v Ind at Chennai 2005
8 ( - ) Shane Bond NZ 688* 22.39 778 v WI at Auckland 2006
9 ( - ) Shoaib Akhtar Pak 684 25.69 855 v NZ at Wellington 2003
10 ( - ) Ryan Sidebottom Eng 665*! 26.60 665 v NZ at Napier 2008
11 ( - ) Corey Collymore WI 640* 32.30 700 v Eng at Lord's 2007
12 ( - ) M’thew Hoggard Eng 637 30.50 795 v SL at Birmingham 2006
13 ( - ) Zaheer Khan Ind 626 33.60 689 v Pak at Delhi 2007
14 ( - ) Andrew Flintoff Eng 621 32.02 810 v Pak at Multan 2005
15 ( - ) Mohammad Asif Pak 619* 23.13 710 v SA at Cape Town 2007
16 ( - ) Monty Panesar Eng 617* 32.45 721 v WI at Chester-le-St 2007
17 ( - ) Danish Kaneria Pak 614 33.90 723 v Eng at Multan 2005
18 ( - ) Chris Martin NZ 609 32.66 643 v Eng at Lord's 2004
19 (+1) James Franklin NZ 594* 28.19 679 v SL at Christchurch 2006
20= (+4) Harbhajan Singh Ind 577 31.48 765 v NZ at Wellington 2002
(-1) Irfan Pathan Ind 577 32.26 761 v SL at Delhi 2005
All-rounders
Rank (+/-) Player Team Points HS Rating
1 ( - ) Jacques Kallis SA 517 616 v Pak at Durban 2002
2 ( - ) Daniel Vettori NZ 340 359 v Eng at Hamilton 2008
3 ( - ) Andrew Flintoff Eng 320 501 v Pak at Multan 2005
4 ( - ) Chaminda Vaas SL 294 300 v WI at Guyana 2008
5 (+2) Irfan Pathan Ind 268 317 v Eng at Mohali 2006
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