Dhoni displaces Smith as No. 1 ODI batsman

Mahendra Singh Dhoni, India's limited-overs captain, has moved to the top spot in the ICC rankings for ODI batsmen after his consistent performance with the bat in the recent series against Sri Lanka. The other big mover is Andrew Flintoff, who is now ranked as the No. 1 allrounder in ODIs.

Dhoni's 193 runs helped India to a 3-2 series triumph, their first in a bilateral series in Sri Lanka. He was the highest run-getter in the five-ODI contest and also won the series prize. Dhoni displaces Graeme Smith, the South African captain, from the No. 1 spot. He had been on top of the rankings briefly for a week in April 2006, and had pushed up to second place earlier this year following the Asia Cup in Pakistan.

With both Smith and Ricky Ponting ruled out of the forthcoming ODIs for South Africa and Australia respectively, Michael Hussey, behind them in fourth spot, could make his way up with good scores in the ODI series against Bangladesh.

Meanwhile, Kevin Pietersen, the England captain, has broken into the top ten and is currently in seventh place, behind Mohammad Yousuf and Shivnarine Chanderpaul. Pietersen, who is targeting a 5-0 whitewash against South Africa, could better Yousuf and Chanderpaul with impressive showings in the remaining two games.

Two of Pietersen's team-mates have also gained in the charts after England secured a winning 3-0 lead. Flintoff, back in England colours in nearly a year, climbed six places to topple Shoaib Malik while Jacques Kallis, who's had a torrid time in England, drops two places to No. 5. In the three ODIs, Flintoff has taken seven wickets and made 156 runs, with scores of 78 and 78 not out.

Stuart Broad, who took career-best figures of 5 for 23 in the second ODI at Trent Bridge, has jumped to No. 4 in the rankings for bowlers, which is led by Nathan Bracken.

ICC player rankings

ODI batsmen
Rank	Name	Country	Rating
1	M.S. Dhoni	IND	793

2 G.C. Smith SA 772 3 R.T. Ponting AUS 751

4 M.E.K. Hussey AUS 750 5 Mohammad Yousuf PAK

738 6 S. Chanderpaul WI 733 7 K.P. Pietersen ENG

731 8 A. Symonds AUS 730 9 S.R. Tendulkar IND

724 10 M.L. Hayden AUS 722  Top 100

2 D.L. Vettori NZ 761 3 S.E. Bond NZ 711

4 S.C.J. Broad ENG 692 5 M.G. Johnson AUS 674

5 M. Muralidaran SL 674 7 W.P.U.J.C. Vaas SL 672

8 B. Lee AUS 667 9 K.D. Mills NZ 663

10 A. Nel SA 657  Top 100

2 Shoaib Malik PAK 349 3 J.D.P. Oram NZ

342 4 Shahid Afridi PAK 331 5 J.H. Kallis

SA 327 6 C.H. Gayle WI 323 7 S.T. Jayasuriya

SL 313 8 P.D. Collingwood ENG 311 9 S.B. Styris

NZ 297 10 M.J. Clarke AUS 285  Top 10