Dubai, March 30, 2012: South Africa’s AB de Villiers has reached the number-one batting position for the first time in his career where he has been joined by Australia captain Michael Clarke in the latest Reliance ICC Player Rankings which were released on Friday. De Villiers’ move to the top of the batting chart is due to a combination of his own good performances in the Hamilton and Wellington Tests, as well as Kumar Sangakkara’s disappointing show with the bat against England in the Galle Test.
De Villiers scored 83 in South Africa’s nine wickets victory over New Zealand in the Hamilton Test and then followed up with 38 and 68 in the drawn Wellington Test. These performances have helped him earn 35 ratings points which have given him a career-best rating of 821 and a lift of two places. Sangakkara, who had entered the Galle Test as the number-one ranked Test batsman, scored nought and 14 in Sri Lanka’s 75 runs victory over England. This meant the former Sri Lanka captain has dropped from 850 ratings points to 813 ratings point which cost him three places in the batting table.
Sangakkara is now ranked fourth but can regain the number-one spot if he performs strongly in the Colombo Test which starts next week as he trails the two number one-ranked batsmen by only eight ratings points. Jacques Kallis, AB de Villiers’ team-mate, has also slipped one position to third after managing just six runs in his only innings in Hamilton and then missing the Wellington Test. So the fall of Kallis and Sangakkara has helped Michael Clarke regain the number-one position -a week before he leads his side in the three-Test series against the West Indies. It is the second time Clarke has headed the batting table after he first topped the batting list in August 2009 after he scored 93 against England in Australia’s victory by an innings and 80 runs in the Leeds Test.
Apart from a reshuffle at the top of the order, South Africa’s Hashim Amla has moved up two places to eighth after scores of 16 and 46 in Hamilton and 63 in Wellington, England’s Jonathan Trott has jumped six places to ninth after scoring 12 and 112 in Galle, New Zealand captain Ross Taylor has gained three places and is now in 10th position after scoring 44 and 17 in Hamilton and 18 in Wellington while Sri Lanka captain Mahela Jayawardena has lifted seven places to 19th spot after scoring 180 and five in Galle.
Other batsmen losing ground include South Africa captain Graeme Smith in 12th (down by two), Alastair Cook in 14th (down by nine), Kevin Pietersen in 22nd (down by two), Matt Prior in 24th (down by two) and Brendon McCullum in 25th (down by one). In the Reliance ICC Player Rankings for Test bowlers, South Africa’s Vernon Philander has continued to climb up the chart. The fast bowler had figures of four for 70 and six for 44 in Hamilton and six for 81 and none for 29 in Wellington.
Philander has gained 148 ratings points which has not only given him a career-best rating of 764 but also led to a jump of 11 places which puts him in a career-best fifth position. He is the third South Africa bowler inside the top 10 with Dale Steyn firmly holding the number-one position and Morne Morkel in 10th spot after slipping one place. Sri Lanka’s Rangana Herath is the other bowler to earn a career-best rating and ranking. The left-arm spinner took six for 74 and six for 97 for which he earned 92 ratings points which has put him on 752 ratings points and a seventh position in the bowling charts after a rise of six places.
In the Reliance ICC Player Rankings for Test all-rounders, Bangladesh’s Shakib Al Hasan is in number-one position but New Zealand’s Daniel Vettori has slipped two places to fifth spot which has put England’s Stuart Broad and Australia’s Shane Watson one place up in third and fourth spots, respectively. Meanwhile, England finds itself in a must-win situation in the Colombo Test if it has to retain its number-one position on the Reliance ICC Test Championship table. England’s victory will keep it ahead of South Africa by a fraction of a point but its failure to win the Test will make South Africa as the new number-one ranked side.
If England loses the series 2-0, it will drop from 118 ratings points to 113 ratings points – three points behind South Africa – while a 1-0 defeat will mean it will slip to 114 ratings points. Australia will also be eyeing to gain, at least, one place on the Test Championship table when it takes on the West Indies in the three-Test series in Bridgetown on 7 April.
While a series win will put it ahead of India in third position, a 3-0 series win will put Australia on equal points with England on 113 ratings points (if England loses 2-0 to Sri Lanka). And when the ratings are calculated beyond the decimal point, then Australia will be placed above England in second position as it will have a rating of 113.10 against England’s rating of 113.045.
The Test Championship table as well as the player rankings will now be updated at the conclusion of the Colombo Test.
West Indies v Australia series schedule
7-11 April – 1st Test, Bridgetown
15-19 April – 2nd Test, Port of Spain
23-27 April – Third Test, Roseau, Dominica
Reliance ICC Test Championship (after New Zealand-South Africa Test series and before the start of West Indies-Australia Test series)
Rank Team Ratings
1- England 118
2- South Africa 116
3- India 111
4- Australia 111
5- Pakistan 108
6- Sri Lanka 98
7- West Indies 87
8- New Zealand 85
9- Bangladesh 8
(Zimbabwe will have to play eight Tests in the qualification period before it will have a ranking)
(Developed by David Kendix)
Reliance ICC Test Rankings (after Hamilton, Wellington and Galle Tests)
Batsmen (top 30)
Rank (+/-) Player Team Pts Ave HS Rating
1= (+2) Michael Clarke Aus 821 49.65 855 v Eng at Headingley 2009
(+4) AB de Villiers SA 821! 49.16 821 v NZ at Wellington 2012
3 (-1) Jacques Kallis SA 819 56.78 935 v NZ at Centurion 2007
4 (-3) K. Sangakkara SL 813 55.39 938 v Eng at Kandy 2007
5 (-1) Younus Khan Pak 797 52.44 880 v SL at Lahore 2009
6 (+2) S. Chanderpaul WI 766 49.28 901 v NZ at Napier 2008
7 ( – ) T. Samaraweera SL 764 52.89 775 v SA at Cape Town 2012
8 (+2) Hashim Amla SA 763 46.98 842 v Ind at Kolkata 2010
9 (+6) Jonathan Trott Eng 762 53.57 856 v SL at Cardiff 2011
10 (+3) Ross Taylor NZ 761 43.52 775 v Pak at Wellington 2009
11 (-2) Graeme Smith SA 753 49.64 843 v Eng at Johannesburg 2010
12= (-1) Sachin Tendulkar Ind 749 55.44 898 v Zim at Nagpur 2002
(-1) Azhar Ali Pak 749*! 43.17 749 v Eng at Dubai 2012
14 (-9) Alastair Cook Eng 747 47.94 836 v Ind at Edgbaston 2011
15 (-1) Misbah-ul-Haq Pak 741 45.27 771 v Eng at Abu Dhabi 2012
16 ( – ) Ricky Ponting Aus 735 53.44 942 v Eng at Adelaide 2006
17 ( – ) Mike Hussey Aus 728 50.82 921 v WI at Kingston 2008
18 ( – ) Ian Bell Eng 714 46.75 822 v Ind at The Oval 2011
19 (+7) M. Jayawardene SL 687 50.84 883 v Ind at Ahmedabad 2009
20 ( – ) Darren Bravo WI 683*! 52.50 683 v Ind at Mumbai 2011
21 (-2) Kevin Pietersen Eng 675 48.21 909 v WI at Headingley 2007
22 ( – ) VVS Laxman Ind 662 45.97 781 v WI at Dominica 2011
23 (-2) Matt Prior Eng 661 43.60 693 v Pak at Dubai 2012
24 (-1) B.McCullum NZ 651 36.53 673 v Pak at Hamilton 2011
25 (-1) Virender Sehwag Ind 644 50.79 866 v SL at Galle 2010
26 (-1) Tamim Iqbal Ban 622 38.00 707 v Eng at Old Trafford 2010
27 ( – ) Andrew Strauss Eng 601 41.15 769 v SA at Johannesburg 2005
28 ( – ) Shane Watson Aus 598 38.12 729 v Eng at Perth 2010
29 (+1) Shakib Al Hasan Ban 596! 34.68 596 v Pak at Mirpur 2011
30 (+2) M.Hafeez Pak 575 36.53 591 v Eng at Dubai 2012
Bowlers (top 20)
Rank (+/-) Player Team Pts Avge Econ HS Rating
1 ( – ) Dale Steyn SA 886 23.18 902 v SL at Centurion 2011
2 ( – ) Saeed Ajmal Pak 835! 26.70 835 v Eng at Dubai 2012
3 ( – ) James Anderson Eng 795 30.25 813 v Ind at Edgbaston 2011
4 (+1) Peter Siddle Aus 768! 29.03 768 v Ind at Adelaide 2012
5 (+11) Vernon Philander SA 764*! 14.15 764 v NZ at Wellington 2012
6 (-2) Stuart Broad Eng 757 31.25 777 v Pak at Dubai 2012
7 (+6) Rangana Herath SL 752! 32.50 752 v Eng at Galle 2012
8 (-1) Abdur Rehman Pak 739*! 27.37 739 v Eng at Dubai 2012
9 (-3) Graeme Swann Eng 734 28.54 858 v Pak at Lord’s 2010
10 (-1) Morne Morkel SA 733 30.03 776 v Aus at Cape Town 2011
11 (-3) Ben Hilfenhaus Aus 726*! 28.91 726 v Ind at Adelaide 2012
12 (-2) Zaheer Khan Ind 697 31.78 752 v SA at Durban 2010
13 (-2) Shakib Al Hasan Ban 678* 31.33 680 v WI at Mirpur 2011
14 (-2) Chris Martin NZ 651 33.59 669 v SA at Hamilton 2012
15 (-1) Umar Gul Pak 642! 32.47 642 v Eng at Dubai 2012
16 (-1) Daniel Vettori NZ 611 34.16 681 v Aus at Auckland 2000
17 ( – ) Tim Bresnan Eng 598* 23.60 623 v Ind at The Oval 2011
18 ( – ) Shane Watson Aus 585* 28.01 633 v SA at Cape Town 2011
19 ( – ) Mitchell Johnson Aus 583 31.29 825 v Eng at Cardiff 2009
20 (+1) Pragyan Ojha Ind 572* 34.62 595 v WI at Mumbai 2011
All-rounders (top five)
Rank (+/-) Player Team Pts HS Rating
1 ( – ) Shakib Al Hasan Ban 404 /*! 404 v Pak at Mirpur 2011
2 ( – ) Jacques Kallis SA 385 616 v Pak at Durban 2002
3 (+1) Stuart Broad Eng 372 382 v Pak at Abu Dhabi 2012
4 (+1) Shane Watson Aus 350 /* 394 v SA at Johannesburg 2011
5 (-2) Daniel Vettori NZ 349 412 v Pak at Napier 2009
*indicates provisional rating; a batsman qualifies for a full rating after playing 40 Test innings; a bowler qualifies for a full rating when he reaches 100 Test wickets.
!indicates career-highest rating/For more information go to www.relianceiccrankings.com
AB de Villiers AB de Villiers AB de Villiers AB de Villiers AB de Villiers AB de Villiers AB de Villiers AB de Villiers AB de Villiers AB de Villiers AB de Villiers AB de Villiers AB de Villiers AB de Villiers AB de Villiers AB de Villiers
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.