Ponting retains top spot in LG ICC Player Rankings

Adam Gilchrist and Ricky Ponting pose with the series trophy © Getty Images

Australia captain Ricky Ponting's twin centuries in his 100th match have reinforced his position as the world's top Test batsman in the LG ICC Player Rankings.

And as if that was not reason enough for him to celebrate, the 2-0 series win over South Africa by Ponting's side has reinforced their position as the top Test team in the updated LG ICC Test Championship.

Ponting's scores of 120 and 143 not out in Australia's eight-wicket win against the Proteas in Sydney has lifted him through the 900 point threshold in the rankings, something only ever achieved by the most outstanding cricketers of all time.

To put that into context, only Matthew Hayden among current Test batsmen has achieved a higher rating than Ponting's new mark of 922 points. The big left-hander reached 935 points in 2002 after twin hundreds of his own, against England in Brisbane, continued a golden run of form.

Australia's series win has lifted their lead at the top of the LG ICC Test Championship table to a healthy 14 points, completing a highly satisfactory home Test summer for Ponting's men.

They started the season with a lead of just eight points over England but five wins and a draw in six matches against the West Indies and South Africa, together with England's 2-0 series loss in Pakistan have dispelled fears they may have had of being overtaken.

Australia's nearest challengers are now India after their recent series win against Sri Lanka.

Meanwhile, South Africa are licking their wounds. The series loss has dropped them one point and, more importantly, one place in the LG ICC Test Championship table to sixth. Remember, they were second as recently as July 2004.

Their consolation is that they will have an almost-immediate chance for revenge as, following the forthcoming VB Series, they host Australia for a three-Test series.

Ponting's scores, his 27th and 28th Test hundreds (with the first of them helping to ease him past 8000 Test runs), were needed to retain his lead in LG ICC Player Rankings because Jacques Kallis's scores of 111 and 50 not out lifted the South African back up three places to second.

Kallis, the ICC's Test Player of the Year, started the series in top spot in the batting list but, after missing the Perth Test through injury, twin failures in Melbourne dropped him to fifth place and not even a return to form in Sydney could help him regain the lead.

Hayden slips down three spots to fifth, despite 90 in Australia's successful run-chase on Friday, while there are contrasting fortunes for other batsmen on both sides in the wake of the Sydney Test.

For South Africa, Herschelle Gibbs moves up four places to 14th, helped by his second innings 67, but captain Graeme Smith drops four spots after two failures. Six innings in the series without a half-century has seen Smith drop from joint 12th to 19th.

Another player slipping down the LG ICC Player Rankings for batsmen is AB de Villiers, who slides six places to 30th position after scores of 2 and 1 in Sydney, but Ashwell Prince is up 15 spots to 53rd following his first innings 119.

For Australia, Adam Gilchrist's first half-century in nine Test innings sees him move back up four places to 16th but Justin Langer moves four places in the other direction and is now 17th. Michael Hussey remains just outside the top 20, in 21st, but with his best-ever haul of rating points.

Glenn McGrath has regained top spot from Shane Warne in the LG ICC Player Rankings for bowlers with Warne slipping to third position, also behind Sri Lanka's Muttiah Muralidaran, after a relatively modest Test in which he claimed just two of the 16 South Africa wickets to fall.

Brett Lee (21st, up two places) and Stuart MacGill (unchanged in 22nd place) are both still just outside the top 20 positions.

For South Africa with the ball, Shaun Pollock has dropped out of the top 10 in the LG ICC Player Rankings for bowlers for the first time since 1998. The former captain now lies in 11th position.

Pollock has two team mates ahead of him in the list with Makhaya Ntini, who missed the Sydney match through injury, in sixth place and Andre Nel up one spot to ninth. Nel's haul of rating points is his best ever.

Kallis retains his position as the world's leading all-rounder in the LG ICC Rankings and Pollock remains in third with the two South Africans sandwiching England's Andrew Flintoff.

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