Smith displaces Tendulkar as No. 1 ODI batsman

[Laaloo]

http://content-usa.cricinfo.com/ci-icc/content/current/story/342576.html ICC rankings Smith displaces Tendulkar as No. 1 ODI batsman Cricinfo staff March 15, 2008 Graeme Smith: on top of the world © AFP After the satisfaction of seeing his team on top of the ODI rankings, Graeme Smith had a personal milestone to celebrate as well, as he went past Sachin Tendulkar to take the No. 1 spot in the ICC's ODI rankings for batsmen. Smith began the three-match series against Bangladesh in third place, 24 points behind Tendulkar, but pushed him to second spot after scoring 199 and being dismissed just once in the three ODIs. In fact, Smith has been in glorious form in one-day internationals over the last seven months, scoring nine half-centuries and a hundred in his last 19 innings, for an average of 52.35. Tendulkar's reign at the top thus lasted less than two weeks - he claimed the spot after leading India to victory in the CB Series - but Smith is likely to keep that spot for at least three months since both India and Australia aren't scheduled to play ODIs before June. AB de Villiers was the other South African batsman who made significant progress, going up six places to a career-best No. 9 after being the second-highest run-getter in the series with 109 runs. Among the bowlers, Andre Nel, who has been left out of the Test squad for the series against India, made the biggest improvement, going up ten places to No. 6 after claiming seven wickets in the series. Bangladesh, though, had little to celebrate. Abdur Razzak moved up two spots to No. 16 in the bowlers' list, while Shakib Al Hasan broke into the top 50 for batting, but Mohammad Ashraful, their captain, dropped eight places to 59. LG ICC Player Rankings Rank Name Country Rating 1 G.C. Smith SA 792 2 S.R. Tendulkar IND 777 3 R.T. Ponting AUS 770 4 Mohammad Yousuf PAK 752 5 M.L. Hayden AUS 740 6 A.C. Gilchrist AUS 738 7 M.E.K. Hussey AUS 736 8 K.P. Pietersen ENG 735 9 A.B. de Villiers SA 733 10 M.S. Dhoni IND 728 wat a load of crap is thiss :nervous:(:(((:((

[bharat297]

Not a bad batsman but a couple of good showings against Windies and BD certainly helped him there. I wonder if the ranking system takes into account the opposition that you play.

[DomainK]

Not a bad batsman but a couple of good showings against Windies and BD certainly helped him there. I wonder if the ranking system takes into account the opposition that you play.

It does. But Bangladesh being a test playing team and since they unexpectedly won a few matches in the WC, statistically they are not considered as weak a team as they really are. But they have earned it, havent they?

[umpire]

how come de villiers out of no where in top 10?

[Laaloo]

yea zaheers biatch is the number one batsmen in ODIS :giggle::giggle::giggle::giggle:

[Dirty_South]

AB de Villiers was the other South African batsman who made significant progress, going up six places to a career-best No. 9 after being the second-highest run-getter in the series with 109 runs.

Wow! gr8 achievement ! :giggle:

[siddhu]

yeah yeah... the ICC rankings... Smith still has a long way to go before he can replace him as #1 ODI batsman in reality..:finger:

[OriginalCopy]

Problem is we don't play these Zim and Bangladesh matches too often, so Tendu will have to keep shining against quality opposition. But you know what ... No. 1 is No. 1, afterall he did not play Bangladesh all year round ... Nothing succeeds like success, good job Smith.

[Tapioca]

Smith scored 1,86, 56, 50, 5 v WI but gained only 12 points for that. There could be something else going on below the surface - for example, Smith might have had some very bad series in the past who weightage went down because it passed a certain threshold (like it became more than two years old).

[Sachinism]

pfff india need to tour bangla