West Indies batsman moves up to second averaging 147 in series against Australia; Hussey and Ponting slip as Sangakkara takes over at top; improving players include Jaques, Katich, Taylor, Bravo and Marshall
The record books will show that Australia beat the West Indies 2-0 but those who witnessed it will know that the men from the Caribbean were competitive throughout the series and perhaps deserved a different final scoreline.
Playing against the undisputed Test kings, it was never going to be easy for eighth-ranked West Indies but there were several positives to come out of the series for the home team and it can look ahead with a considerable amount of optimism and confidence.
Perhaps the brightest star in the West Indies’ sky at present is player of the series Shivnarine Chanderpaul, and following another good match in Barbados he has gained three more places in the Reliance Mobile ICC Player Rankings for Test batsmen. He now sits second in what is the highest ranking of his career to date.
His statistics speak for themselves. In six innings Chanderpaul scored 442 runs at an average of 147.33, including two centuries and three fifties. His batting held the West Indies middle-order together and the fact he ended up not out on three of those six trips to the crease showed how difficult he was to dismiss.
Chanderpaul moves ahead of Australia ’s Ricky Ponting and Mike Hussey in the rankings and now sits just three ratings points behind top-ranked batsman Kumar Sangakkara, who moves top due to Hussey’s indifferent form of late.
It is not the first time in his career that Sangakkara has been top of the pile, having achieved that feat earlier this year, and he is still some way off his best rating of 938 points that he managed against England in 2007.
Shortly, he will have another opportunity to impress as Sri Lanka plays host to India in a three-Test series during July and August.
But the 30-year-old left-hander will have to be at the top of his game to keep his lofty perch because the group is very tightly bunched with just 16 ratings points separating Sangakkara from South Africa ’s Jacques Kallis in sixth position.
While Hussey, Ponting and Andrew Symonds have lost ground in the rankings, it is not all bad news for Australia as Phil Jaques has gained seven places to 28th position in the batting list and fellow opener Simon Katich has moved up 15 places to 42nd after the two put on 223 for the first wicket in Barbados .
Still making his way in Test cricket, 22-year-old Xavier Marshall is the biggest mover of the week, progressing 54 places to 82nd position following his fine knock of 85 in the second innings.
Another positive to come out of the latest rankings for the West Indies is Jerome Taylor. The Jamaican, who celebrates his 24th birthday on Sunday, has moved up one place to 12th in the Reliance Mobile ICC Player Rankings for Test bowlers and is currently enjoying the best rating of his career to date.
There is progress, too, for Fidel Edwards (up two places to 28th position), Dwayne Bravo (up four places to 30th) and Sulieman Benn (up 20 places to 76th), meaning the West Indies now has four bowlers in the top 30.
The bowling rankings are still headed by spinner Muttiah Muralidaran making it a batting and bowling double for Sri Lanka , with South Africa ’s Dale Steyn in second and Australia ’s Stuart Clark closing the gap in third position.
Bravo has also made an impact on the Reliance Mobile ICC Player Rankings for Test all-rounders, breaking into the top five. He moves up two places to fourth in the list following a good performance in Barbados where he scored 98 runs and took three wickets.
It is Bravo’s highest all-rounder rating of his career so far and he is now just seven ratings points behind England ’s Andrew Flintoff who lies in third position. The list is headed by Kallis followed by New Zealand skipper Daniel Vettori in second place.
Despite winning the series 2-0, Australia stays on 141 ratings points at the top of the Reliance Mobile ICC Test Championship following the conclusion of the series with the West Indies . It is 30 points clear of the next best, India , but then there are just five points separating Anil Kumble’s team from Sri Lanka in fifth position.
Pakistan sits in sixth spot followed by New Zealand six points further back in seventh, the West Indies in eighth and Bangladesh ninth.
Reliance Mobile ICC Test Championship (as of 17 June)
Rank Teams Rating
1 Australia 141
2 India 111
3 England 110
4 South Africa 109
5 Sri Lanka 106
6 Pakistan 94
7 New Zealand 88
8 West Indies 77
9 Bangladesh 1
Note: Zimbabwe has a rating of 12 but has not played sufficient number of Test matches over the new rating period to be included on the main table.
Reliance Mobile ICC Test Rankings (as of 17 June)
Batsmen
Rank (+/-) Player Team Points Ave HS Rating
1 (+2) K.C.Sangakkara SL 893 55.19 938 v Eng at Kandy 2007
2 (+3) S.Chanderpaul WI 890 ! 49.08 890 v Aus at Bridgetown 2008
3 (-2) Mike Hussey Aus 882 68.38 921 v WI at Kingston 2008
4= (-2) Ricky Ponting Aus 880 58.37 942 v Eng at Adelaide 2006
( - ) Mhd Yousuf Pak 880 55.49 933 v WI at Karachi 2006
6 (-1) Jacques Kallis SA 877 57.14 935 v NZ at Centurion 2007
7 ( - ) Matthew Hayden Aus 834 53.51 935 v Eng at Brisbane 2002
8 ( - ) M.Jayawardena SL 810 51.93 844 v WI at Guyana 2008
9 ( - ) Yunus Khan Pak 799 49.14 856 v Eng at Headingley 2006
10 ( - ) Kevin Pietersen Eng 795 49.55 909 v WI at Headingley 2007
11 ( - ) Michael Clarke Aus 723 47.06 761 v Ind at Melbourne 2007
12 (+1) Graeme Smith SA 712 48.57 756 v NZ at Wellington 2004
13 (+1) S.R.Tendulkar Ind 704 55.31 898 v Zim at Nagpur 2002
14 (+1) Rahul Dravid Ind 701 54.88 892 v Pak at Kolkata 2005
15 (-3) Andrew Symonds Aus 700* 44.65 718 v WI at Antigua 2008
16 ( - ) Andrew Strauss Eng 686 42.28 769 v SA at Johannesburg 2005
17 ( - ) Virender Sehwag Ind 681 51.75 854 v SA at Kolkata 2004
18 ( - ) Sourav Ganguly Ind 674 42.71 713 v Aus at Adelaide 1999
19 ( - ) VVS Laxman Ind 672 43.82 753 v Aus at Sydney 2004
20 ( - ) R.R.Sarwan WI 659 40.40 697 v Eng at Old Trafford 2004
Bowlers
Rank (+/-) Player Team Points Ave Econ HS Rating
1 ( - ) M.Muralidaran SL 897 21.95 920 v Ban at Kandy 2007
2 ( - ) Dale Steyn SA 892 21.60 897 v Ind at Ahmedabad 2008
3 ( - ) Stuart Clark Aus 863*! 21.46 863 v WI at Bridgetown 2008
4 ( - ) Brett Lee Aus 794 29.58 811 v WI at Antigua 2008
5 ( - ) Makhaya Ntini SA 777 27.85 863 v Ind at Durban 2006
6 ( - ) Ryan Sidebottom Eng 748*! 25.11 748 v NZ at Trent Bridge 2008
7 ( - ) Chaminda Vaas SL 709 29.09 800 v Ind at Chennai 2005
8 ( - ) Anil Kumble Ind 708 29.06 859 v SL at Bangalore 1994
9 ( - ) Shoaib Akhtar Pak 684 25.69 855 v NZ at Wellington 2003
10 ( - ) Shane Bond NZ 668* 22.39 778 v WI at Auckland 2006
11 ( - ) Monty Panesar Eng 647 31.99 721 v WI at Chester-le-St 2007
12 (+1) Jerome Taylor WI 628*! 34.69 628 v Aus at Bridgetown 2008
13 (-1) Corey Collymore WI 621* 32.30 700 v Eng at Lord's 2007
14= ( - ) Zaheer Khan Ind 619 33.60 689 v Pak at Delhi 2007
( - ) Mohammad Asif Pak 619* 23.13 710 v SA at Cape Town 2007
16 ( - ) M’thew Hoggard Eng 618 30.50 795 v SL at Edgbaston 2006
17 ( - ) Danish Kaneria Pak 614 33.90 723 v Eng at Multan 2005
18 ( - ) Harbhajan Singh Ind 608 31.03 765 v NZ at Wellington 2002
19 ( - ) Andrew Flintoff Eng 603 32.02 810 v Pak at Multan 2005
20 ( - ) Daniel Vettori NZ 591 34.43 681 v Aus at Auckland 2000
All-rounders
Rank (+/-) Player Team Points HS Rating
1 ( - ) Jacques Kallis SA 495 616 v Pak at Durban 2002
2 ( - ) Daniel Vettori NZ 324 360 v Eng at Lord's 2008
3 ( - ) Andrew Flintoff Eng 302 501 v Pak at Multan 2005
4 (+2) Dwayne Bravo WI 295*! 295 v Aus at Bridgetown 2008
5 (-1) Chaminda Vaas SL 294 300 v WI at Guyana 2008
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