Ponting is top of the world in LG ICC Player Rankings

Ricky Ponting has become the world's leading Test batsman after taking over the top spot in the LG ICC Test Player Rankings.

Ponting has assumed the number one position for what is believed to be the first time in his career thanks in large measure to his first innings 117 in his side's 184-run win over South Africa at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

The Australia captain moves up one place to replace Jacques Kallis at the top of the rankings after twin failures for the South Africa batsman, failures which have dropped him four spots in a tightly-packed top five.

Reaching the summit of the LG ICC Player Rankings is due reward for Ponting's prolific 2005 in which he scored 1544 runs, the second highest aggregate for a batsman in a single calendar year and bettered only by Vivian Richards' 1976 total of 1710 runs.

Ponting is not the only Australia batsman to overtake Kallis in the latest LG ICC Player Rankings. Matthew Hayden has moved up three places to joint third after scores of 65 and 137 in Melbourne, the latter effort his fifth century in the past seven Tests.

Further down the list among Australia batsmen Justin Langer, passed fit for the Sydney Test after missing Melbourne with a hamstring injury, is 13th, the forgotten Damien Martyn is 17th and Adam Gilchrist, currently in freefall, is 20th, down four spots.

Outside that top 20 is Michael Hussey, whose third hundred (122) in his first five Tests has lifted him to 21st spot, up 17 places. Brad Hodge is 43rd.

Aside from Kallis, South Africa have two other players in the top 20 of the batting list with captain Graeme Smith at 15th (down one place) and Herschelle Gibbs, who made 94 in the first innings in Melbourne, up two positions to 18th.

Other South Africa players who featured at the MCG include AB de Villiers (24th position, down one place), Perth centurion Jacques Rudolph (51st, down nine), Mark Boucher (60th, down one), Shaun Pollock (62nd, up seven) and Ashwell Prince (74th, up one).

The news is better for South Africa elsewhere in the LG ICC Player Rankings. Andre Nel's efforts in the second Test have moved him up one place in the bowling list and he is now in the top ten, with his highest-ever haul of rating points.

It means South Africa now has three bowlers in the world's top ten with Makhaya Ntini in fifth position (down one place and ruled out of the Sydney Test through injury) and Pollock in sixth spot (up one place).

Pollock has retained third position in the LG ICC Test Rankings for all-rounders and Kallis is still top of the world in that category, ahead of England's Andrew Flintoff.

The LG ICC Player Rankings for bowlers are still dominated by Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath. Warne's six wickets in Melbourne, giving him 96 wickets in 2005 (a world record for a calendar year), has helped him reclaim top spot but is only seven rating points ahead of McGrath.

Stuart MacGill (23rd) and Brett Lee (24th) are just hovering outside the top 20 places while Andrew Symonds, who took five wickets in Melbourne, is up a massive 64 places to joint 70th in the bowling list.

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