Pietersen loses top one-day ranking

Poor run: Kevin Pietersen's quiet series against West Indies means he drops one place in the rankings © Getty Images

Kevin Pietersen has lost his No.1 ranking in one-day internationals after a lean series against West Indies. He made 42 runs at 14 in the three matches and has been replaced on the top spot by Ricky Ponting, even though Australia haven't play since the World Cup.

Pietersen slips to second place, with Mike Hussey in third, but a strong series for him against India in August came lift him back to the head of the list. Mahendra Singh Dhoni continues his progress up the rankings and is now fifth overall. He has moved past the injured West Indies captain Ramnaresh Sarwan, who was unable to take any part in the series against England.

Shivnarine Chanderpaul's golden tour has lifted him four places to 13th after a Man-of-the-Series performance of 202 runs, including an unbeaten 116 at Edgbaston. In the bowling, Daren Powell's 4 for 40 at Trent Bridge has pushed him into the top 20 for the first time. Their efforts helped West Indies close the gap on England in the one-day rankings to one point.

West Indies now have the opportunity to heap further pressure on England as they travel to Ireland to take part in a quadrangular series with the Netherlands, Scotland and Ireland in Dublin and Belfast. A win over Ireland on July 14 will edge them even closer to England.

With every game in the quadrangular series carrying ODI status, there is an opportunity for the players from those top Associates, as well as the West Indies, to make moves up the rankings.

That means the likes of Scotland's Ryan Watson, Ireland's Kevin O'Brien and Darron Reekers of the Netherlands will be hoping to make advances in the batting ranklings while Majid Haq of Scotland, Kyle McCallan of Ireland and the Netherlands' Billy Stelling will want to make progress in the bowlers' equivalent.

Also, Scotland can join its Associate rivals Kenya and Ireland on the ODI Championship table if they beat West Indies in Dublin on July 12. Already boasting the requisite win rate in excess of 60 per cent against the top Associates, the Scots will secure a place on the main table by beating a Full Member.

ODI rankings

Team	Matches	Points	Rating
Australia	54	7038	130
South Africa	47	5718	122
New Zealand	45	5103	113
Pakistan	39	4330	111
Sri Lanka	56	6162	110
India	56	6092	109
England	46	4703	102
West Indies	50	5028	101
Bangladesh	44	1962	45
Ireland	13	354	27
Zimbabwe	36	779	22
Kenya	11	0	0