Vettori and Oram grab top bowling and all-rounders? spots as Gilchrist leaps to second in batting ladder of LG ICC ODI Player Rankings
Harbhajan and Johnson enter top 20 but Anderson drops out; Tendulkar rises as Dhoni and Yuvraj slide; time running out for teams as seedings cut-off date for ICC Champions Trophy 2008 approaches fast
New Zealand duo of Daniel Vettori and Jacob Oram grabbed top bowling and all-rounders spots and Australia’s Adam Gilchirst rocketed 10 places to second position in the batting chart of the LG ICC ODI Player Rankings as the Black Caps’ series against England and the tri-series in Australia both reached the halfway stage after Friday’s matches.
Vettori achieved his career-best ranking after the Auckland match which England won by six wickets to reduce the deficit to 2-1 in the five-match series. Vettori, who has so far taken four wickets in the series, had started in second place behind team-mate Shane Bond who is not taking part in the series.
Vettori leads Australia’s third-placed Nathan Bracken by 37 ratings points after the left-arm fast bowler also improved his ranking by one spot following good performance in the ongoing tri-series that also involves India and Sri Lanka.
After the halfway stage in the tri-series, Bracken is the leading wicket-taker with 10. Bracken’s new ball partner Brett Lee is the second most successful bowler with eight wickets but has dropped two places and now shares fifth place with Sri Lanka’s Muttiah Muralidaran.
Australia spinner Brad Hogg has returned to the top 10 after climbing one place but his fellow left-armer Mitchell Johnson has taken a bigger jump by shooting up 16 places to a career-best 12th position, a spot he shares with Sri Lanka’s Farveez Maharoof who slid three places from ninth.
Johnson has picked up seven wickets in Australia’s four matches to date and is close to entering the top 10. If he maintains his good form over the next couple of weeks, he could rise to as high as fifth by the end of the series.
Harbhajan Singh is India’s only bowler in the top 20 after improving five positions to 18th spot.
England is now without a bowler in the top 20 after James Anderson slipped five places to 21st. However, Anderson has a chance to get back into the top 20 if he produces good performances in the remaining two matches next week.
The positive news for Paul Collingwood’s side is that its young fast bowler Stuart Broad is making good upward progress. The 21-year-old Leicestershire bowler has jumped 18 places to 30th position after being England’s leading wicket-taker in the series with six to date.
India’s 19-year-old fast bowler Ishant Sharma continues to make significant improvement on his first tour. The Delhi-born pacer has carried his good Test form into the ODI series and after claiming six wickets in four ODIs, has shot up 96 places to 154th position.
In the LG ICC Player Rankings for ODI batsmen, Australia wicketkeeper-batsman Gilchrist has climbed 10 places to second position after a superb 118 in Perth. Gilchrist, who will retire from international cricket after the series, is now the second leading run-getter in the series behind India’s Gautam Gambir with 193 runs.
Gilchrist led the batting chart numerous times between 2004 and 2006 but dropped out of the top 10 before the start of the current series. He now has a realistic chance of signing off on the top as he trails an out-of-form Ricky Ponting by 50 points.
Gilchrist’s rise means two of the most charismatic batsmen in world cricket today have slipped down the leader board.
Australia’s Andrew Symonds has dropped three places to fifth while England’s Kevin Pietersen has lost four places to share ninth spot with South Africa’s Herschelle Gibbs.
India’s little master Sachin Tendulkar continues to head in the right direction and has climbed two places to seventh position. Tendulkar has a good opportunity to rise further in the list as only 23 points separate second-placed Gilchrist from Pietersen and Gibbs who share ninth place.
However, Tendulkar’s team-mates Mahindra Singh Dhoni and Yuvraj Singh have lost ground and have dropped to 13th and 19th positions respectively. Gambhir has improved his position by two places and currently sits in 35th place.
Sri Lanka’s Kumar Sangakkara has improved four places to 16th spot while Collingwood’s match-winning effort in Auckland has lifted him three places to 23rd. Collingwood’s team-mate Ian Bell is the second highest ranked England batsman after Pietersen in 21st position after improving by one place.
In the LG ICC Player Rankings for ODI all-rounders, Oram has achieved a career-best rating and has leaped five places to the top of the table after scoring 88 runs in the Auckland match and taking two wickets in series so far.
Oram leapfrogged Shoaib Malik of Pakistan, Jacques Kallis of South Africa, Andrew Flintoff of England and Sri Lanka’s Sanath Jayasuriya.
Vettori has joined rival captain Collingwood in the top 10 while Symonds has dropped out of top 10 after falling two places. Vettori rises two places to 10th position while Collingwood improves his ninth position by one place.
In the LG ICC ODI Championship, Australia is still at the top of the table, leading South Africa by three ratings points.
New Zealand is third, three ratings points ahead of fourth-placed India while Sri Lanka is another two ratings points adrift in sixth-place. England, after winning the third ODI in Auckland, is seventh on 106 ratings points and has a chance to collect more ratings points if it wins the next two matches in Napier (20 February) and Christchurch (23 February).
With just seven ratings points currently separating New Zealand in third position and England in seventh, the competition is going to be fierce over the coming weeks to see who finishes where.
This will become particularly significant as we approach 12 March, which is the cut-off date for the determination of seedings for the ICC Champions Trophy 2008. Wherever the top eight teams sit on that date will dictate the make-up of the two groups for the big event, which is set to take place in Pakistan this September.
Remaining matches:
17 February – 7th match, Australia v India, Adelaide
19 February – 8th match, India v Sri Lanka, Adelaide
20 February – 4th ODI, New Zealand v England, Napier
22 February – 9th match, Australia v Sri Lanka, Melbourne
23 February – 5th ODI, New Zealand v England, Christchurch
24 February – 10th match, Australia v India, Sydney
26 February – 11th match, India v Sri Lanka, Hobart
29 February – 12th match, Australia v Sri Lanka, Melbourne
2 March – 1st final, Sydney
4 March – 2nd final, Brisbane
7 March – 3rd final, if required, Adelaide
For more information go to http://www.icc-cricket.com/
