Dubai, 22 July 2008
Ashwell Prince and AB de Villiers have stormed into the top 20 of the Reliance Mobile ICC Player Rankings for Test batsmen after outstanding performances against Englan
d in the second Test, which finished on Monday.
Prince scored 149, de Villiers contributed 174 and the two featured in a 212-run fifth-wicket partnership that laid the foundation of South Africa ’s mammoth 522. That total set up a 10-wicket victory which gave it a 1-0 lead with two Tests of the four-match series remaining.
Prince has climbed eight places to 13th spot in the rankings and now has 12th-placed Graeme Smith firmly in his sights while de Villiers has jumped six places to 19th position.
However, Jacques Kallis has slipped in the rankings and is now placed seventh dropping one spot after scoring four at Leeds , his third failure of the series. The 33-year-old from Cape Town has dropped five places since January this year.
South Africa opener Neil McKenzie has also slipped two places to 26th but Hashim Amla has improved by one and now sits in 25th spot.
England ’s batsmen had a forgettable Test and this is clearly reflected in the latest rankings. Kevin Pietersen, Ian Bell, Andrew Strauss and captain Michael Vaughan have all dropped down the ladder.
Pietersen, who lifted to seventh after his knock of 152 at Lord’s, has dropped one position to eighth while Bell has also failed to defend his career-best 13th position, which he achieved following his career-best 199 at Lord’s, and has slipped four places to 17th spot.
Andrew Strauss has taken a dive of five places and is now placed 22nd while Vaughan is in 35th spot after sliding three positions.
The batting list is still headed by Kumar Sangakkara of Sri Lanka, ahead of the West Indies’ Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Mike Hussey of Australia and his captain Ricky Ponting, along with Mohammad Yousuf of Pakistan, the latter two sharing fourth place.
The top 20 list in the Reliance Mobile Player Rankings for Test bowlers has remained unchanged except Matthew Hoggard, who is yet to play in the series, dropping and swapping places with India ’s Harbhajan Singh in 17th and 18th spots respectively.
Monty Panesar holds firm in eleventh place while Andrew Flintoff, who played in his first Test in almost 18 months, stays in 19th spot.
England ’s James Anderson has improved his ranking by one place and he is now just outside the top 20 list in 21st position while the biggest mover in this category is South Africa ’s Morne Morkel who climbs eight places to 38th position after recording match figures of 7-113.
The list is headed by Sri Lanka ’s Muttiah Muralidaran while South Africa ’s Dale Steyn is just clear of Australia ’s Stuart Clarke, who occupies third place.
In the all-rounder listing, Kallis remains top, clear of Daniel Vettori of New Zealand , but Flintoff has dropped one place to share fourth position with Sri Lanka ’s Chaminda Vaas while West Indies ’ Dwayne Bravo has climbed to third place.
Reliance Mobile ICC Test Rankings (as of 22 July, post second Test between England – South Africa at Leeds and pre first Sri Lanka – India Test in Colombo )
Batsmen
Rank (+/-) Player Team Points Ave HS Rating
1 ( - ) K.C.Sangakkara SL 893 55.19 938 v Eng at Kandy 2007
2 ( - ) S.Chanderpaul WI 890! 49.08 890 v Aus at Bridgetown 2008
3 ( - ) Mike Hussey Aus 882 68.38 921 v WI at Kingston 2008
4= ( - ) Ricky Ponting Aus 880 58.37 942 v Eng at Adelaide 2006
( - ) Mohd Yousuf Pak 880 55.49 933 v WI at Karachi 2006
6 (+2) Matthew Hayden Aus 834 53.51 935 v Eng at Brisbane 2002
7 (-1) Jacques Kallis SA 823 56.28 935 v NZ at Centurion 2007
8 (-1) Kevin Pietersen Eng 819 50.39 909 v WI at Headingley 2007
9 ( - ) M.Jayawardena SL 810 51.93 844 v WI at Guyana 2008
10 ( - ) Yunus Khan Pak 799 49.14 856 v Eng at Headingley 2006
11 ( - ) Michael Clarke Aus 723 47.06 761 v Ind at Melbourne 2007
12 ( - ) Graeme Smith SA 713 48.71 756 v NZ at Wellington 2004
13 (+8) Ashwell Prince SA 707 43.90 756 v Pak at Centurion 2007
14 (-1) S.R.Tendulkar Ind 704 55.31 898 v Zim at Nagpur 2002
15 ( - ) Rahul Dravid Ind 701 54.88 892 v Pak at Kolkata 2005
16 ( - ) Andrew Symonds Aus 700* 44.65 718 v WI at Antigua 2008
17 (-4) Ian Bell Eng 683 43.46 704 v SA at Lord's 2008
18 ( - ) Virender Sehwag Ind 681 51.75 854 v SA at Kolkata 2004
19 (+6) AB de Villiers SA 679! 41.59 679 v Eng at Headingley 2008
20 (-1) Sourav Ganguly Ind 674 42.71 713 v Aus at Adelaide 1999
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 864 22.51 897 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 ( - ) Ryan Sidebottom Eng 761* 25.27 769 v SA at Lord's 2008
6 ( - ) Makhaya Ntini SA 736 28.31 863 v Ind at Durban 2006
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 641 32.27 721 v WI at Chester-le-St 2007
12 ( - ) Jerome Taylor WI 628*! 34.69 628 v Aus at Bridgetown 2008
13 ( - ) 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 ( - ) Danish Kaneria Pak 614 33.90 723 v Eng at Multan 2005
17 (+1) Harbhajan Singh Ind 608 31.03 765 v NZ at Wellington 2002
18 (-1) Matthew Hoggard Eng 606 30.50 795 v SL at Edgbaston 2006
19= (+1) Daniel Vettori NZ 591 34.43 681 v Aus at Auckland 2000
( - ) Andrew Flintoff Eng 591 32.24 810 v Pak at Multan 2005
All-rounders
Rank (+/-) Player Team Points HS Rating
1 ( - ) Jacques Kallis SA 467 616 v Pak at Durban 2002
2 ( - ) Daniel Vettori NZ 324 360 v Eng at Lord's 2008
3 (+1) Dwayne Bravo WI 295 /*! 295 v Aus at Bridgetown 2008
4= (+1) Chaminda Vaas SL 294 300 v WI at Guyana 2008
(-1) Andrew Flintoff Eng 294 501 v Pak at Multan 2005
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