ISLAMABAD: Pakistan pace bowler Mohammad Irfan on Monday achieved career-best ODI ranking after he moved to tenth place in the ICC player rankings for bowlers.

However, Pakistan’s ace off-spinner Saeed Ajmal with 733 points still leads the rankings for ODI bowlers while Irfan gained tenth place -- a rise of six places.

In the rankings for ODI bowlers, New Zealand pacers Tim Southee and Trent Boult have also made significant gains in the latest rankings.

Southee is the leading bowler of the ongoing World Cup to date with 13 wickets, which has helped him jump 10 places to 12th, while Boult’s 10 wickets to date has put him in a career-high 24th place after a rise of 23 places.

Spin wizard Daniel Vettori has summed up an excellent first couple of weeks for New Zealand by grabbing eight wickets, which has earned him five places and ninth spot in the latest rankings.

South Africa’s wrist spinner Imran Tahir and Australia paceman Mitchell Starc also achieved career-best rankings. Imran has jumped seven places to fourth while Starc has gained two places to fifth. India’s Mohammad Shami and Ravichandran Ashwin have also advanced. Shami has gained 11th position while Ashwin is at 16th.

Ireland’s left-arm spinner George Dockrell is the highest-ranked bowler amongst the associate member countries. The 22-year-old is 28th.

In the ICC rankings for ODI batsmen, Sri Lankan veteran Kumar Sangakkara has moved up two places in second place.

Other batsmen to head in the right direction are Australian Aaron Finch eighth (up by four places), Pakistan skipper Misbah-ul-Haq 13th (up by two places), India’s Suresh Raina 20th (up by four places), Sri Lanka’s Mahela Jayawardene 21st (up by four places) and Zimbabwe’s Brendan Taylor 29th (up by three places).

The batting table is headed by South Africa captain and master batsman A.B. de Villiers who leads second-ranked Sangakkara and compatriot Hashim Amla by 49 ratings points.

De Villiers with 217 runs is sixth in the list of leading run-getters in the tournament to date and is just two ratings points short of becoming only the 11th batsman to break the 900-point barrier since the introduction of the current ODI player rankings system.

Published in Dawn March 3rd , 2015

On a mobile phone? Get the Dawn Mobile App: Apple Store | Google Play