Morkel rises to personal best ahead of final Test

Morne Morkel reached a career-high rating on the MRF Tyres ICC Test Rankings for bowlers just ahead of what is set to be his final Test.

Morkel jumped five places to break into the top 10 and take sixth place with 798 rating points. This was the result of his career-best match haul, where he picked up 4/87 and 5/23 in South Africa’s 322-run win over Australia in Cape Town.

He also reached the milestone of 300 Test wickets in the same game, and described his match-winning effort as “the highlight of my life”.

With the pacer set to retire after the series, his latest achievements are that much more poignant.

Morkel wasn’t the only South African moving up the charts this week. Dean Elgar broke into the top 10 among batsmen to be No.8, while his fellow opener Aiden Markram climbed seven spots to 15 and Quinton de Kock rose five to 19.

Along with AB de Villiers and Hashim Amla, South Africa now have five batsmen in the top 20.

Also on the move up after the latest set of matches was New Zealand’s Trent Boult, who rose five places to seventh on the bowlers’ chart. Boult’s 6/32 knocked England over for just 58 in the first innings of the Auckland Test. He backed that up with three wickets in the second innings.

“I guess you feel great when you get the ball moving around like the way we did. We know how important it is to get 20 wickets, and the way the bowlers stuck it out together and got the result is what makes it all the more significant,” said Boult after picking up his Player of the Match award in the Test.

Among the other New Zealanders to gain following the innings-and-49-run win were Kane Williamson, who moved up one place to No.3, and Henry Nicholls, whose career-best 145* helped him move up to No.32.

There was no change at the top of the charts, with Steve Smith, Kagiso Rabada and Shakib Al Hasan still leading the rankings for batsmen, bowlers and all-rounders respectively.