The heat is on Australia in LG ICC ODI Championship table

The heat is well and truly on Australia in the LG ICC ODI Championship table.

The holders of the ICC Cricket World Cup now hold a lead of just two rating points at the top of the ladder from a rampant South Africa side that completed a 3-1 demolition of Pakistan in its just-completed home series.

And if it loses its three-match Chappell-Hadlee series to New Zealand which starts in Wellington on Friday, Australia will relinquish top spot to Graeme Smith's side, the first time it will not have been top since the table started in October 2002.

That appears to be a real possibility given that Australia is without regular captain Ricky Ponting, vice-captain Adam Gilchrist and also the injured duo of Andrew Symonds and fast bowler Brett Lee, the latter damaging his ankle in training, forcing him to sit out at least the first clash.

And in the absence of this illustrious quartet, it will require a massive effort from their replacements if Australia is to retain its lead.

The reason why that lead is now so slim is down to a combination of factors. On the one hand, Australia's ranking has slipped 10 points since May 2005, when it stood at 140 points.

And on the other, South Africa has enjoyed a real surge in its ODI form over the past 12 months or so, starting with its 3-2 series win over Ponting's men in early 2006.

In the same period that Australia has dropped those 10 rating points, the Proteas have gained 16 points and now they are within touching distance of the summit, perfect timing and a great confidence boost ahead of the game's showpiece tournament, the ICC Cricket World Cup, which starts in the Caribbean on 13 March.

Below those top two sides there appears to be a league within a league as five sides, from third-placed Pakistan (which remains in that position despite its defeat in South Africa, but now only just) to a resurgent England in seventh, are separated by just five rating points.

That means there is scope for plenty of movement within that cluster of teams over the coming days, with fifth-ranked India rounding off its series with Sri Lanka at Visakhapatnam on Saturday, as well as sixth-placed New Zealand's imminent action against Australia.

To track those possible movements, visit: the odi predictor where you can see how the table will unfold with all possible combinations of results.

In terms of the LG ICC Player Rankings, it is a case of as you were at the top of the lists with Michael Hussey still leading the batting table while South Africa's Shaun Pollock heads both the bowling and all-rounder charts.

Hussey has slipped up in terms of his overall rating after a quiet finish to the tri-series against England and New Zealand, but he is still comfortably ahead of team mate Ponting and England's Kevin Pietersen.

As for Pollock, it may well be time to dip into the thesaurus for cricket writers around the world because another series of outstanding efforts, especially with the ball in his hand, means the critics have every reason to be running out of superlatives to describe his consistent excellence.

The former captain's 5-23 in Johannesburg on Wednesday, the third-best figures of a 274-match ODI career that began way back in 1996, has seen his bowling rating rise by another 10 points and that puts him third in the all-time list of top-rated bowlers in this form of the game.

Pollock has now overtaken Muttiah Muralidaran of Sri Lanka and only the pace-bowling pair of Sir Richard Hadlee from New Zealand and the West Indies' Joel Garner are ahead of him, as is illustrated by the list below:

Incidentally, only five ODI bowlers in history have passed the magic 900-point mark with Australia's Glenn McGrath the fifth member of that illustrious group, achieving the feat five years ago while on tour in South Africa in March 2002.

Pollock's all-rounder rating is the best of his career and he remains comfortably ahead of Chris Gayle, recently voted West Indies' Player of the Year, and England's Andrew Flintoff in the LG ICC Player Rankings in that category.

Pollock still has a long way to go to reach the heights of Kapil Dev when it comes to high all-rounder ratings in ODIs. The Indian champion reached an incredible mark of 625 points in 1985, the year India won the World Championship of Cricket in Australia.

India's wicketkeeper-batsman Mahendra Singh Dhoni is one of the players on the rise in the LG ICC Player Rankings for ODI batsmen, easing up one place to third position off the back of his unbeaten 67 to secure victory over Sri Lanka in Margoa on Wednesday.

Dhoni is now only one rating point behind Ponting and so, providing he produces a solid display in the final match of the series, he has every chance of taking second spot. Remember, Dhoni briefly held the number one position in April last year.

Jacques Kallis of South Africa has moved back into the top 20 batting places after an unbeaten 71 helped pilot his side to a nine-wicket win against Pakistan on Wednesday. His partner during an unbroken stand of 156, A.B. de Villiers (who also made 71 not out), is now in 31st spot in the list, and with his best-ever tally of rating points.

The big movers in the LG ICC Player Rankings for ODI bowlers are both Indian and are both outside the top 20, but if they continue to show impressive form then that might not remain the case for too much longer.

Rejuvenated left-armer Zaheer Khan has charged up ten places in the list to 27th position following his 5-42 in Margoa, while Munaf Patel climbs eight spots to 39th in the list, with his best-ever haul of rating points.

The remaining schedule for the India v Sri Lanka ODI series is as follows:

17 Feb - fourth ODI, Visakhapatnam

The schedule for the Chappell-Hadlee (New Zealand v Australia) ODI series is as follows:

16 Feb - first ODI, Wellington
18 Feb - second ODI, Auckland
20 Feb - third ODI, Hamilton

More details of the latest LG ICC Player Rankings as well as the ODI and Test Championships can be found here