Lara storms back to number one (17 March 1999)

17 March 1999

Lara storms back to number one

Pricewaterhouse Coopers Media Release

Brian Lara, whose batting almost single-handedly won the second Test match for the West Indies against Australia, has returned to number one in the PricewaterhouseCoopers Ratings - a position he has not held since 1995.

The computer rated this as Lara's finest Test innings, higher even than his 375. This is because it was made against a very highly rated bowling attack, in a match where others struggled to make runs, and resulted in a victory for his team.

Jimmy Adams also moved up, by 14 places to 27th.

In the bowling, McGrath moved up another eight points, but remains second because in New Zealand Allan Donald also climbed to reach a career best 895 points. Courtney Walsh moved up two places to ninth, overtaking MacGill who slipped two places to tenth. Meanwhile Pakistan's Wasim Akram, who this week celebrated his second hat-trick, reached his highest Rating for twelve months.

In New Zealand, Jacques Kallis - South Africa's run machine of late - entered the top ten of the PwC Ratings for the first time.

PricewaterhouseCoopers Ratings of Test Cricketers

17th March (showing changes since 10th March)

Rank Change Player Country Points Career Highest rating of career (showing Average points player had after match) 1 (+4) Brian Lara WI 881 50.87 898 v Eng at The Oval 1995 2 (-1) Steve Waugh Aus 853 49.9 909 v WI at Melbourne 1996 3 (-1) Sachin Tendulkar Ind 811 54.49 870 v Pak at Madras 1999 4 ( - ) Rahul Dravid Ind 796 54.43 862 v NZ at Hamilton 1999 5 (-2) Saeed Anwar Pak 793 46.02 835 v Ind at Calcutta 1999 6 ( - ) Alec Stewart Eng 768 41.15 783 v SA at Trent Bridge 1998 7 ( - ) Mark Waugh Aus 756 43.52 803 v SA at Port Elizabeth 1997 8 ( - ) Nasser Hussain Eng 723 37.53 723 v Aus at Sydney 1999 9 (+1) Aravinda de Silva Sri 712 42.86 764 v SA at Cape Town 1998 10 (+6) Jacques Kallis SA 700 40.05 700 v NZ at Christchurch 1999 11 (-2) Michael Slater Aus 688 45.25 768 v Sri at Melbourne 1995 12= (-1) Daryll Cullinan SA 684 41.63 736 v Ind at Johannesburg 1997 12= (-1) Murray Goodwin Zim 684 53.6 698 v Pak at Peshawar 1998 14 (-1) Hansie Cronje SA 681 38.12 752 v Eng at Trent Bridge 1998 15 (-1) Saurav Ganguly Ind 675 49.68 706 v Pak at Delhi 1999 16= ( - ) Gary Kirsten SA 662 40.28 766 v Ind at Calcutta 1996 (-1) S.Chanderpaul WI 662 42.05 746 v Ind at Georgetown 1997 18 ( - ) Andy Flower Zim 650 43.54 650 v Pak at Lahore 1998 19 (+9) "Ijaz Ahmed, sen." Pak 647 39.77 695 v Eng at The Oval 1996 20 (+12) Inzamam-ul-Haq Pak 644 43.21 865 v Eng at Lord's 1996 21 (-2) Sanath Jayasuriya Sri 642 45.82 750 v Ind at Colombo 1997 22 (-2) Graham Thorpe Eng 638 40.13 803 v WI at Kingston 1998 23 (-1) M.Azharuddin Ind 633 44.88 723 v Eng at The Oval 1990 24 (-4) Carl Hooper WI 631 34.14 705 v SA at Johannesburg 1998 25 (-3) Craig McMillan NZ 627 48.94 633 v SA at Auckland 1999 26 (-2) Mark Ramprakash Eng 615 28.1 633 v Aus at Melbourne 1998 27 (+14) Jimmy Adams WI 605 50.36 830 v Aus at Port of Spain 1995 28 (-3) Mark Taylor Aus 601 43.49 793 v Ind at Brisbane 1991 29 (-3) Sadagopan Ramesh Ind 600 62 600 v Sri at Colombo 1999 30 (-3) Jonty Rhodes SA 598 35.18 599 v WI at Centurion 1999

Four batsmen who reached their peak batting points today:

34= (+2) Nathan Astle NZ 577 35.12 577 v SA at Christchurch 1999 69 (+19) Herschelle Gibbs SA 380 * 30.81 380 v NZ at Christchurch 1999 93 (+3) Shane Warne Aus 275 15.14 275 v WI at Kingston 1999 144 ( - ) Glenn McGrath Aus 116 5.84 116 v WI at Kingston 1999

Bowlers

Rank Change Player Country Points Career Highest rating of career (showing Average points player had after match) 1 ( - ) Allan Donald SA 895 21.66 895 v NZ at Christchurch 1999 2 ( - ) Glenn McGrath Aus 863 22.62 883 v WI at Adelaide 1997 3 ( - ) Curtly Ambrose WI 839 21.18 915 v Eng at Port of Spain 1994 4 ( - ) Shaun Pollock SA 836 22.11 838 v WI at Cape Town 1999 5= (+4) Wasim Akram Pak 764 22.69 828 v Aus at Karachi I 1994 5= (+1) M.Muralitharan Sri 764 26.9 787 v Eng at The Oval 1998 5= ( - ) Simon Doull NZ 764 26.95 795 v Ind at Hamilton 1999 8 (-1) Anil Kumble Ind 761 27.83 859 v Sri at Bangalore 1994 9 (+2) Courtney Walsh WI 745 25.1 803 v Eng at Edgbaston 1995 10 (-2) Stuart MacGill Aus 743 21.67 760 v WI at Port of Spain 1999 11 (-1) Angus Fraser Eng 721 27.32 794 v SA at Headingley 1998 12= ( - ) Javagal Srinath Ind 696 29.95 703 v Pak at Calcutta 1999 (+1) Saqlain Mushtaq Pak 696 29.56 696 v Sri at Dhaka 1999 14= ( - ) Waqar Younis Pak 671 21.96 912 v Zim at Rawalpindi 1993 (+1) Heath Streak Zim 671 24.83 752 v Sri at Colombo 1996 16 (+1) Darren Gough Eng 641 28.62 693 v SA at Headingley 1998 17 (-1) Shane Warne Aus 631 25.3 907 v Eng at Melbourne 1994 18= (+1) Mushtaq Ahmed Pak 627 29.22 819 v NZ at Rawalpindi 1996 (+2) Dean Headley Eng 627 26.46 627 v Aus at Sydney 1999 20 (+1) Paul Reiffel Aus 596 26.96 722 v WI at Brisbane 1996 21 (-3) Jason Gillespie Aus 590 21.7 701 v Eng at Headingley 1997 22 ( - ) Ian Bishop WI 576 24.27 850 v Eng at Edgbaston 1995 23 (+1) Jacques Kallis SA 550 28.88 589 v WI at Centurion 1999 24 (-1) Pommie Mbangwa Zim 546 24.58 605 v Pak at Peshawar 1998 25 (-1) Chris Cairns NZ 537 32.73 549 v Sri at Colombo 1998 26 ( - ) Franklyn Rose WI 520 25.08 541 v SA at Durban 1998 27 ( - ) Venkatapathy Raju Ind 517 29.79 690 v WI at Chandigarh 1994 28 ( - ) Dominic Cork Eng 509 31.81 680 v SA at Johannesburg 1995 29 (+2) Andrew Caddick Eng 493 32.35 563 v WI at Kingston 1998 30 (-1) Dion Nash NZ 491 29.64 560 v Ind at Wellington 1998

Two bowlers who reached their peak bowling points today:

37 (+3) Shoaib Akhtar Pak 418 34.6 418 v Sri at Dhaka 1999 71= (NEW) Nehemiah Perry WI 190 24.83 190 v Aus at Kingston 1999