Cricket

Ashwin moves to 4th; Ajmal becomes number-one in ODI rankings

PTI

Indian off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin has moved up by twoplaces to fourth in the latest ICC One-day Rankings for bowlers while skipperMahendra Singh Dhoni has dropped a place to sixth.

Ashwin is the only Indian player in the top-20 in thebowlers' list while in the chart for the batsmen, India have two players withVirat Kohli retaining number two spot.

Meanwhile, India remained unchanged at number three positionin the team list, headed by England and followed by South Africa.

India have 120 points while both England and the Proteashave 121. When ratings points are calculated to within the decimal point, SouthAfrica trails England by a mere 0.09 ratings point.

England will hold the position until at least January 2013,when it travels to India for a five-match ODI series.

Meanwhile, Pakistan off-spinner Saeed Ajmal has replacedteammate Mohammad Hafeez as the number-one ranked bowler.

Saeed was the highest wicket-taker in the recent seriesagainst Australia. He picked 10 wickets at an economy rate of 3.41 with anaverage of 9.9 in the series.

Hafeez slipped to second position in the bowlers' table butmoved up a place to second in the Rankings for all-rounders with a career-bestrating of 413.

South Africa paceman Lonwabo Tsotsobe, who headed thebowlers' table before the two series began, is now ranked third.

Other bowlers dropping down the rankings include MorneMorkel in fifth (down by one), Steven Finn in sixth (down by one), ShahidAfridi in 19th (down by three), Tim Bresnan in 38th (down by six) and SohailTanvir in 56th (down by nine).

South Africa paceman Dale Steyn has re-entered the top 10 inthe bowlers' table. He has moved up four places to 10th.

Steyn's teammate Robin Peterson, who was the highestwicket-taker on either side in the series against England with seven wickets,has moved up 12 places to a career-best 29th.

Peterson's overall rating of 575 is his career-best.

South Africa's Hashim Amla, who was the highest run-getteron either side in the series against England with 335 runs, has consolidatedhis position as the number-one ranked batsman, followed by Kohli and AB deVilliers in third.

Amla's overall rating of 901 is the highest of his careerand is the eighth best in history.

Jonathan Trott in fifth (up by two) and Michael Clarke inseventh (up by one) have also made gains in the top ten of the latest battingtable. Michael Hussey, meanwhile, is now tenth in the table, moving up fourplaces.

The rankings for all-rounders is still headed byBangladesh's Shakib Al Hasan.

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