Sri Lanka closes gap on Australia as Indian bowlers make biggest gains in LG ICC Rankings

Sri Lanka has closed the gap to Australia at the top of the LG ICC ODI Championship to 15 points by winning the home tri-series against India and West Indies.

Sri Lanka's new rating of 121 points is four higher than it was at the start of the series and the best rating held by any team in 2005 apart from Australia.

India's defeat in the final meant it missed out on an opportunity to close in on sixth-placed England. India has, however, gained one point and remains seventh with a rating of 96 points.

West Indies, without several experienced players, created a ripple by beating Sri Lanka but it missed out on the final. Its rating has therefore fallen by one point but it remains in eighth position.

In the LG ICC ODI Player Rankings, Irfan Pathan and Ashish Nehra have both climbed into the top twenty, reaching their best ever official rankings. Pathan has climbed ten places to 13th over the course of the tournament, while Nehra is up 18 places to 15th. These two are now India's highest ranked one-day bowlers.

For Sri Lanka, Muttiah Muralitharan and Chaminda Vaas stay in second and third places respectively in the bowling, while the biggest climber over the tournament was Farveez Maharoof, up 23 places to 45th to make his first entry into the top 50. Sanath Jayasuriya has nudged up one place to ninth after reaching the milestone of 10,000 ODI runs. Kumar Sangakarra's drop of nine places looks dramatic, but this is more a reflection of how tightly packed the batting is. Just 22 points separate the 10th ranked batsman (Tendulkar) from the 21st (Sangakarra). Mahele Jayawardene has re-entered the top 30 with a climb of four places.