COLOMBO, Sri Lanka, CMC-West Indian cricketers Marlon Samuels and spinner Sunil Narine have both recorded rises of 20 places in the latest Reliance ICC T20 player rankings released yesterday.
Samuels, who hammered 78 and took one for 15 in the 36-run victory over the host Sri Lanka, leapt 20 places to 18th in the batting rankings and was up seven places to equal ninth in the all-rounders’ table. Both represented career-best ratings as did his improving bowling ranking of 60th – up 19 places.
Narine’s three for nine in the final capped an impressive tournament and his 20 place move took him to equal 13th in the bowling rankings with a career best rating of 638.
His colleague Samuel Badree, who claimed the key wicket in the final of Sri Lanka’s Kumar Sangakkara with his leg-breaks, moved a staggering 46 places to 47th in the rankings table.
Chris Gayle, who dominated the ICC World Twenty20 semi-final against Australia, moved into second place in the batting rankings behind New Zealand’s Brendon McCullum.
Gayle surpassed player of the tournament Shane Watson, of Australia, who drops to third in the batting rankings but maintains his position as number-one all-rounder and is still sixth in the bowling rankings.
Additionally, three other West Indian players moved up the player rankings- Dwayne Bravo jumped four places to number 21, Kieron Pollard moved up by ten notches to 48, and Captain Darren Sammy is now 108 after climbing 15 places.
Opening batsman Johnson Charles fell by nine places to 40.
Meanwhile, West Indies has moved up five places to second in the Reliance ICC T20I Championship table after beating number-one ranked Sri Lanka in the final.
But Sri Lanka has retained the number-one spot despite the loss in the final.
