Roger Twose now ranked No 2 batsman in ODIs

Roger Twose's amazing run of form throughout 2000 has seen him achieve a ranking as the second best One-Day International batsman in the world.

The latest PricewaterhouseCoopers rankings have him sitting just behind Australian Michael Bevan and ahead of Indian skipper Sourav Ganguly.

The next highest New Zealander is Nathan Astle who has slipped in the rankings to 19th. Chris Cairns is next in line at 26.

While no comparison has been made with the earlier years of ODIs it is believed the only New Zealand player who might have challenged for a higher position was Martin Crowe during the 1992 World Cup.

Other contenders who would have ranked highly at that time also would have been Andrew Jones and Mark Greatbatch.

Just how consistent Twose has been can be seen in the fact that Ganguly has scored six ODI centuries this year and Twose has scored the only one of his career in his last outing in Cape Town.

His feat in becoming the first New Zealander to score 1000 ODI runs in a calendar year was also part of his century on Saturday at Cape Town.

At the moment he is sixth on the list for most ODI runs in the calendar year. But his average of 1068 runs at 56.21, scored in only 25 games, is clearly the best of the top players.

Gary Kirsten of South Africa has scored most runs with 1403 at 45.25 from 34 games. Ganguly is next with 1315 at 52.60 in 28 matches. Jacques Kallis, in 37 games, has 1265 runs at 46.85. Yousuf Youhana in 41 games has scored 1162 at 32.37 and Inzamam-ul-Haq has 1074 runs at 42.96 from 34 matches.

Twose is already the leading run scorer in New Zealand's Shell Cup history with 2488 runs in 85 matches.

Chris Harris has the best ranking of New Zealand's bowlers at 22nd position.

In Test matches Cairns is the best New Zealand on both the batting and bowling lists. He is ranked 13th batsman in the world and 11th bowler. Craig McMillan is ranked 15th best batsman and Astle 26th.

Despite his back injury Dion Nash is 17th ranked bowler. Daniel Vettori is 21st and Simon Doull 22nd.