ICC ODI Batsmen Rankings: AB de Villiers retains top spot

AB de Villiers of South Africa reacts during the 2015 Cricket World Cup Semi Final match between New Zealand and South Africa at Eden Park on March 24, 2015 in Auckland, New Zealand.

In the Reliance ICC Player Rankings for ODI Batsmen, South Africa captain AB de Villiers has become the 11th batsman overall, and second South African after Hashim Amla, to break the 900-point mark. In ranking terms, 900 points marks out a player as truly great.

De Villiers achieved the milestone during the semi-final against New Zealand when he scored 65 not out. He is now eighth on the list behind Viv Richards (935), Zaheer Abbas (931), Greg Chappell (921), David Gower (919), Dean Jones (918), Javed Miandad (910) and Brian Lara (908). Desmond Haynes (900) and Gary Kirsten (900) complete the tally of 11 batsmen. Indian cricketing great Sachin Tendulkar’s career-best is 897, which he achieved in 1998.

There is no change in the top five batters but the biggest movers in the latest rankings are Steven Smith and Martin Guptill, who were yesterday named in the Team of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015.

Smith finished the series with 402 runs with one century and four half-centuries, while Guptill belted the highest World Cup individual score to date while scoring 237 not out on the way to finishing as the leading run-getter with 547 runs. As a result, Smith has jumped 19 places to a career-high 12th position, while Guptill has finished in 22nd place after rising 12 places.

India opener Rohit Sharma has also headed in the right direction after achieving a career-best ranking of 12th. Rohit scored 330 runs in the series for which he has been rewarded with a jump of seven places.

The curtain fell on the ODI careers of Michael Clarke, Brendan Taylor, Misbah-ul-Haq, Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene. Clarke finished his career in 29th spot (up by three places), Taylor 20th (down by four places), Misbah in 12th(up by one place), Sangakkara (second) and Jayawardene 34th (down by five places)

Rank	Player	Country	Rating Points
1	AB de Villiers	South Africa	902*
2	Kumar Sangakkara	Sri Lanka	860
3	Hashim Amla	South Africa	828
4	Virat Kohli	India	822
5	Tillakaratne Dilshan	Sri Lanka	793
6	Shikhar Dhawan	India	756
7	Kane Williamson	New Zealand	733
8	MS Dhoni	India	731
9	Glenn Maxwell	Australia	720
10	George Bailey	Australia	697

*indicates career-highest rating