West Indies fast bowling trio achieve career-best rankings

(ICC) West Indies fast bowlers Darren Sammy, Dwayne Bravo and Kemar Roach have all achieved career-best rankings in the Reliance Mobile ICC ODI Player Rankings.

Sammy, Bravo and Roach shared 23 wickets between them in the series against Zimbabwe which the West Indies won 4-1 and have been rewarded with big jumps in the latest rankings which were released yesterday at the end of New Zealand-Australia and West Indies-Zimbabwe ODI series which concluded on Saturday and Sunday, respectively.

Sammy, who took eight wickets in the series, has vaulted 37 places to share 20th spot with Bangladesh’s Abdur Razzak, Bravo has jumped 20 places to occupy 24th spot after picking up seven wickets while Roach has rocketed 23 places to sit in 80th position after snapping up eight wickets in the series.

Australia fast bowler Mitchell Johnson, who won the Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy after being named as the 2009 ICC Cricketer of the Year at the LG ICC Awards in Johannesburg, has also returned to the top 10 after a stellar performance against New Zealand.

The 28-year-old Queenslander took 12 wickets in the series against New Zealand which has helped him lift four places to 10th position. Johnson now becomes Australia’s highest-ranked bowler after Doug Bollinger slipped two places to 14th spot after managing just four wickets in five ODIs.

New Zealand’s Tim Southee is also on the move and after his six wickets in the series, including 4-36 in the final match of the series in Wellington, he has climbed 15 places to a career-best 38th position.

Southee’s team-mate Shane Bond, who bagged nine wickets against Australia, has swapped places with fellow New Zealander Kyle Mills who missed the series with shoulder and knee injuries. A player misses one per cent of his ratings for every match he misses, and as such, fifth-placed Bond has taken a 17-point lead over Mills and is just seven points behind fourth-placed Nuwan Kulasekara of Sri Lanka.

Apart from Bollinger, other bowlers who have slipped in the latest rankings include Ray Price of Zimbabwe in third spot (down by one place) and Australia off-spinner Nathan Hauritz in 17th spot (down by one place).

In the Reliance Mobile ICC Player Rankings for ODI batsmen, the West Indies captain Chris Gayle has continued his upward movement and has leapfrogged India great Sachin Tendulkar into fourth position.

Gayle, who was in seventh position at the start of the month, was in sublime form in the series in which he scored 273 runs, including three half-centuries.

New Zealand’s middle-order batsman Ross Taylor has also returned to the top 20 after improving his ranking by four places. He is now in 18th position after scoring 177 runs in the series.

Blackcap Scott Styris, who was the pick of the batsmen in the series with 199 runs, has climbed three places to 37th position while second-ranked Michael Hussey has narrowed the gap with India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni to just eight points after finishing as the second most successful batsman with 198 runs.

The batsmen slipping in the table are Shivnarine Chanderpaul of the West Indies and Brendon McCullum of New Zealand. Both have dropped one place each to ninth and 19th positions, respectively.

There is no change in the Reliance Mobile ICC Player Rankings for ODI all-rounders with Bangladesh captain Shakib Al Hasan still leading the field.

Meanwhile, the positions in the Reliance Mobile ICC ODI Championship at the annual cut-off date of 1 April have also been confirmed with Australia finishing number-one and India claiming second place, 11 ratings points behind.

For their achievements, Australia will be presented with a cheque of US$175,000 while India will collect US$75,000. This will be in addition to US$175,000 which the India side will collect for claiming the top spot in the Reliance Mobile ICC Test Championship. South Africa, which finished second on the Test table, will receive US$75,000. The cheques presentation ceremony will take place in due course.