South Africa into second place in LG ICC ODI Championship

South Africa's 4-0 series win over New Zealand has lifted them to second place in the LG ICC ODI Championship.

Graeme Smith's side started the series in fifth spot but their success has taken them to within 16 points of leaders Australia.

One of the sides they have overtaken is Stephen Fleming's Black Caps, who have dropped from third to sixth in the Championship as a result of their winless tour.

The Proteas' success is reflected in the upward movement of their players in the LG ICC ODI Player Rankings. Fast bowler Makhaya Ntini has now displaced Shaun Pollock as the top South Africa bowler, climbing four places to fourth.

Fellow paceman Andre Nel is up nine places to a career-best 20th and Andrew Hall is also at a personal peak, the medium-pacer moving up eight places to 40th.

New Zealand's one bright spot from the series is the rise of batsman Lou Vincent, who moves up 14 places to 54th.

India, meanwhile, are enjoying individual and team success at the expense of Sri Lanka in their ongoing series which still has two matches to run.

New captain Rahul Dravid is close to his career-best ranking and is up 17 places to seventh in the latest batting list.

Dravid is the highest ranking India batsman but Sachin Tendulkar is not far behind, moving back into the top ten at number nine after returning to international cricket following his long-term elbow injury.

Mahendra Dhoni is up 30 places to 24th in the batting list while, among India's bowlers, Harbhajan Singh has climbed 10 places to 11th and Ajit Agarkar is up nine spots to 16th.

The series has - so far - been largely a bad news story for Sri Lanka as they trail 4-1. Those defeats have seen them drop from second to fourth place in the LG ICC ODI Championship table and most of their players have been heading down the rankings.

An exception to that downward progress has been Kumar Sangakkara who has continued his fine form shown for the ICC World XI in the Johnnie Walker Super Series by moving up three places to sixth spot in the batting list.

If India win the final two matches of the ODI series, in Rajkot on 9 November and Baroda on 12 November, they will remain in seventh place in the table but would be just one point behind New Zealand and two behind England.

A 5-0 win for India over South Africa in the series that follows this one (the first match is in Hyderabad on 16 November) would lift them to 114 points, just two points behind Pakistan.