Lara slips from top spot in world rankings

LONDON: West Indies captain Brian Lara has slipped from number one to number three in the PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) world batting rankings. Lara’s two relative failures (11 and 44) at the Lord’s First Test against England that ended on Monday have toppled him from the No 1 position, which has now been taken by India’s Rahul Dravid, with Australian Matthew Hayden at number two. South African Jacques Kallis is rated fourth, and Australian Ricky Ponting fifth.

Shivnarine Chanderpaul has climbed 12 places to 16th, thanks to his two unbeaten innings of 128 and 97 for the West Indies at Lord’s. Ramnaresh Sarwan (24th) and Chris Gayle (26th) are the only other West Indies batsmen in the top-30. Ashley Giles’ “Man-of-the-Match” performance (9-20) in the first Test at Lord’s, propelled him into the top-20 for the first time in his career. Giles has climbed nine places to 19th, while Pedro Collins —  the pick of West Indies’ attack —  is up eight places to 15th, on the back of his match figures of seven for 175. England’s Steve Harmison, who could have gone top of the list had he taken five or more wickets, remains second behind Sri Lankan spinner Muttiah Muralitharan. South African pacer Shaun Pollock is ranked third ahead of Pakistan’s Shoaib Akhtar, with Glenn McGrath fifth and his Australian team-mate Shane Warne sixth. Collins is the highest ranked West Indies bowler and Merv Dillon, at 28th, is the only other West Indies bowler in the top-30.

Batsmen
1 Rahul Dravid (Ind); 2 Matthew Hayden (Aus); 3 Brian Lara (WI); 4 Jacques Kallis (SA); 5 Ricky Ponting (Aus); 6 Herschelle  Gibbs (SA); 7 Inzamam ul Haq (Pak); 8 Sachin Tendulkar (Ind); 9 Virender Sehwag (Ind); 10 Mark Richardson (NZ); 16th Shivnarine Chanderpaul (WI);
24th Ramnaresh Sarwan (WI); 26th Chris Gayle (WI).
 
Bowlers: 1 Muttiah Muralitharan (SL); 2 Steve Harmison (Eng); 3 Shaun Pollock (SA);
4  Shoaib Akhtar (Pak); 5 Glenn McGrath (Aus); 6 Shane Warne (Aus); 7 Anil Kumble (Ind);
8 Jason Gillespie (Aus); 9 Makhaya Ntini (SA); 10  Harbhajan Singh (Ind); 15th Pedro Collins (WI); 28th Merv Dillon (WI).