Ashwell Prince, who scored his sixth Test hundred in South Africa’s win over Pakistan in Centurion, is now within touching distance of a place in the top ten of the LG International Cricket Council (ICC) player rankings for Test batsmen.
The left-hander has risen three spots to eleventh position, his highest-ever placing on the list, and is now breathing down the neck of teammate Jacques Kallis.
The rise of Prince is not the only piece of good news for South Africa’s players in the latest rankings.
Evergreen all-rounder Shaun Pollock, named man of the series against India, collected four wickets in the Test win against Inzamam-ul-Haq’s side and that has been enough to lift him to fourth position on the bowling list, his highest placing for two years.
Pollock has also been helped in his upward movement by the removal from the list of retirees Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath, but he now stands just five rating points behind third-placed Anil Kumble of India.
Pollock maintains third place in the rankings for Test all-rounders, but his haul of wickets in the first Test, together with an unbeaten 39 when he batted, ensured he has narrowed the gap to the player directly above him, England’s Andrew Flintoff.
Kallis still heads that all-rounders’ list while Warne’s retirement means that India’s Irfan Pathan returns to the top five, just behind Daniel Vettori of New Zealand.
The major positive to come out of the Centurion Test for Pakistan was surely the form of Mohammed Asif, back in the side after suspension.
The fast bowler had match figures of 7-145 on a docile surface and that has been enough to propel him into the top 20 places in the rankings for Test bowlers for the first time.
Asif now sits in 19th spot after a rise of nine places, and it means Pakistan now have four bowlers inside the top 20, with leg-spinner Danish Kaneria and seamer Umar Gul (who missed the first Test through injury) in joint 15th position while fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar, also available again after suspension, lies in ninth place.
Another absentee from Pakistan’s line-up at Centurion who is now available is Mohammad Yousuf, and if he can start this year in the same way he ended the last, then he could soon be occupying top spot in the rankings for Test batsmen.
The stylish right-hander broke Vivian Richards’s 30-year old record for most Test runs in a calendar year as he collected 1 788 runs in 2006. He also claimed the record for most hundreds in this form of the game in the same time frame by posting nine centuries in only 19 innings.
Yousuf lies in second place in the batting list behind Australia captain Ricky Ponting, and these two are well clear of third-placed Kevin Pietersen of England.
Yousuf’s teammate Younis Khan is Pakistan’s other player in the top ten (he lies ninth), while captain Inzamam has slipped one place to 12th position. His opposite number, Graeme Smith, has dropped three places after a quiet opening to the series and is now in 21st spot.
The Australia duo of Damien Martyn and Justin Langer have, like Warne and McGrath, been removed from the listings following their retirement from Test cricket.
South Africa fast bowler Makhaya Ntini, who took 6-161 in the first Test, remains in second position in the rankings for Test bowlers but he is still some distance behind runaway leader Muttiah Muralitharan of Sri Lanka. Andre Nel is the other Proteas’ bowler in the top 20, although a match return of 3-169 at Centurion has seen him slip five places to 17th place in the listing.
Pakistan’s defeat, by seven wickets, means they cannot now leapfrog England into second place in the ICC Test Championship table, even if they fight back to win the series.
Inzamam’s line-up, trailing the side immediately above it by two rating points, had to beat South Africa by two clear Tests to do that.
However, with that reversal in the opening Test, the best they can now hope for is a 2-1 series win and that would only be enough to move them within one rating point of England.
Ahead of both of them is Australia, who are currently 21 points clear after their 5-0 clean sweep of the Ashes series.
South Africa still retains hopes of rising up that list, and if they can secure a series win by two or more Tests, then they will swap places with Sri Lanka — currently four rating points ahead — and move into fifth position. — Sapa