High-flying Sidebottom rockets into top 10 of LG ICC Player Rankings

Fleming signs-off in career-best 13th place as Sri Lanka duo of Sangakkara and Muralidaran in danger of losing top slots

England left-arm fast bowler Ryan Sidebottom has entered the top 10 of the LG ICC Player Rankings for Test bowlers for the first time in his career after producing a performance than earned him the Player of the Series award against New Zealand.

The 30-year-old Yorkshireman jumps 14 places to 10th position after claiming 24 wickets in the series that earned Michael Vaughan’s side a 2-1 win. Sidebottom had entered the series in 44th position and gained 34 places due to his consistent performance with the red cherry.

Sidebottom’s team-mate Monty Panesar also consolidated his position in the top 20 when he lifted four places to 16th position after his series effort of 11 wickets, including 6-126 in Napier.

Leicestershire’s Stuart Broad is the other English bowler to make an upward movement. The 21-year-old, who took 8-250 in two Tests, climbed 23 places to 63rd spot.

However, Matthew Hoggard dropped two places to 13th position and James Anderson fell five places to 38th spot while Steve Harmison stayed in 25th place. Hoggard and Harmison were both dropped after the first Test Anderson bagged 8-283 in the two Tests.

New Zealand boasts three bowlers in the top 20 but all lost ground in the latest rankings. Chris Martin, despite his effort of 11-384, dropped three places to 18th position while Shane Bond and James Franklin – both of whom were not available for the series – dropped one and two places respectively.

Captain Daniel Vettori slipped three places to 24th position after his series effort of 7-383.

The list is still headed by Sri Lanka’s Muttiah Muralidaran but his lead over South Africa’s Dale Steyn is trimmed to just eight points after he managed six wickets in Sri Lanka’s 121 runs victory in Guyana on Wednesday.

With South Africa involved in a Test against India in Chennai, Steyn can leapfrog Muralidaran if he succeeds in producing a good performance.

In the LG ICC Player Rankings for Test batsmen, former New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming signed-off on a high after achieving his career-best ranking. Fleming began the series the series in 16th position and ended his illustrious career in 13th place.

Fleming, who celebrates his 35th birthday next Tuesday, scored 297 runs in the series. Overall, he represented New Zealand in 111 Tests and 280 ODIs scoring 7,172 and 8,037 runs respectively.

Fleming, who also played for Middlesex, Nottinghamshire and Yorkshire in the County Championship, captained the Black Caps in 80 Tests winning 28 and losing 27. The man from Canterbury also captained the Black Caps in 217 ODIs with New Zealand winning 98 and losing 106.

It was under Fleming’s captaincy that New Zealand won the ICC Champions Trophy 2000 in Nairobi when it defeated India in the final.

Daniel Vettori is New Zealand’s next highest ranked batsman. He fell two places to 28th position while Jacob Oram stayed in 38th place. Ross Taylor continued his upward movement and jumped six places to 52nd position.

Kevin Pietersen remains England’s top ranked batsman after his contribution of 259 runs in the series helped him retain his 10th place while Ian Bell climbed one place to 19th spot after scoring 250 runs and Andrew Strauss jumped six places to 22nd position.

However, both Alastair Cook and Paul Collingwood fell three places to 17th and 20th respectively while Michael Vaughan slipped five places to 35th position after scoring just 123 runs in the series.

The batting chart is led by Sri Lanka’s Kumar Sangakkara who leads Australia’s Mike Hussey by a slim margin of four ratings points. Sangakkara conceded 17 ratings points after scoring 50 and 21 in the Guyana Test.

The 30-year-old from Matale will have to bat really well in the second Test at Port of Spain in Trinidad from 3 April to again widen the gap with Hussey otherwise he will have to surrender the coveted spot to the Australian.

In the LG ICC Player Rankings for Test all-rounders, West Indies’ Dwayne Bravo has achieved his career-best ranking. The 24-year-old from Trinidad climbed four places to enter the top five for the first time in his career.

For more information on the LG ICC Player Rankings go to http://www.lgiccrankings.com/