Hayden closes in on Ponting in LG ICC Player Rankings

Matthew Hayden's scores of 94 and 32 in Australia's seven-wicket win over South Africa in Cape Town have pushed him back towards the summit of the LG ICC Player Rankings.

The big left-hander has moved up two places in the latest list and is now in second position behind his team-mate and captain Ricky Ponting, who continues to occupy the number one spot.

Hayden enjoyed a golden spell in the upper reaches of the ratings between 2001 and 2004 but a run of 30 innings without a hundred saw him slide down the list before he began his move back in the right direction with 138 against England at The Oval in September 2005.

His renaissance continued in Cape Town, where he became the quickest Australian to reach 7000 Test runs, doing so in his 142nd innings, three innings faster than the previous mark, set by Ponting.

Hayden is one of six Australia batsmen in the top 20 list, the most by any Test team, as he is joined by not only Ponting but also Justin Langer (13th), Adam Gilchrist (14th), Damien Martyn (15th) and Michael Hussey (20th).

One of the players he has overtaken in his latest surge up the LG ICC Player Rankings is South Africa's Jacques Kallis, who has dropped one place to third position. Kallis is one of three Protea players in the top 20 along with Herschelle Gibbs (17th, down five spots) and Graeme Smith (19th, down one).

Stuart Clark, whose nine wickets on debut earned him the man of the match award and did so much to ensure Australia's victory, has made an immediate impact on the LG ICC Player Rankings for bowlers, smashing into the list in 44th position.

Shane Warne is unchanged in that list in third place after a seam-bowler dominated Test, behind Sri Lanka's Muttiah Muralidaran and Glenn McGrath of Australia, missing the South Africa tour for personal reasons.

Brett Lee is up two positions to 17th and the recalled Michael Kasprowicz is also moving in the right direction, up one place to 29th.

For South Africa, Makhaya Ntini's three late wickets and a total of five in the match have seen him rise one spot to fourth and he remains the highest-ranked bowler for the Proteas ahead of Andre Nel (10th) and the injured Shaun Pollock (11th).

Kallis continues to head the LG ICC Player Rankings for all-rounders and his three wickets in Cape Town has slightly extended his lead over Andrew Flintoff, although England's acting captain has the chance to regain that ground during his side's ongoing Test in Mumbai.

New Zealand's ten-wicket win over the West Indies in Wellington saw upward movements for two of their bowlers in the LG ICC Player Rankings.

Left-armer James Franklin, who captured seven wickets in the match, has moved up nine places to 26th position, while Kyle Mills' six wickets elevated him 38 places to 75th slot. Both players have career-best hauls of rating points.

New Zealand's other bowlers in action during the Test were Daniel Vettori (18th, down one place), Chris Martin (25th, also down one) and Nathan Astle (48th, up one) while Shane Bond, who missed the match through illness, is sixth.

Captain Stephen Fleming is still the Black Caps' top-ranked batsman in the LG ICC Player Rankings, holding firm in 22nd place after his innings of 97 at the Basin Reserve. Astle is 27th (up one place) while Scott Styris drops two positions to joint 39th, and is now alongside Australia's Michael Clarke.

Brian Lara remains the West Indies' top-ranked batsman but scores of 1 & 1 in the second Test have seen him slip to eighth in the list. Captain Shivnarine Chanderpaul is 16th while Chris Gayle is 23rd.

Fidel Edwards' 5-65 lifted him up to 38th in the bowling rankings (up three places) with a career-best mark of rating points while Gayle remains outside the top five in the all-rounder list, dropping down one place to eighth.

Full details of the current LG ICC Test Championship and how future results will impact on the table, as well as the LG ICC Player Rankings can be found here

A further update will be issued after the ongoing India - England Test match in Mumbai.