Boult moves to fourth position in ODI rankings

The left-arm pace bowler has leapfrogged the Australia pair of Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood as well as South Africa’s Kagiso Rabada after finishing with 10 wickets in the series, which included a career-best haul of seven for 34 in the second match in Christchurch.

Boult had finished last year as the top-ranked bowler in ODIs, a place held by Pakistan pace bowler Hasan Ali in what is the last ODI ranking update for the year. India captain Virat Kohli, who slipped in the T20I rankings for batsmen after missing the three-match home series against Sri Lanka, remains on top in ODIs.

Boult’s team-mate Mitchell Santner has also moved into the top 10 after finishing with three for 15 in his only appearance in the series. The left-arm spinner has gained four slots to reach 10th position after his fine performance in the final match, which was reduced to 23 overs per side and which the home side won by 66 runs.

Doug Bracewell (up 15 places to 77th) has also moved up the bowling rankings for the home side while Ross Taylor (up four places to 11th) and Henry Nicholls (up 30 places to 90th) were the other main gainers among batsmen.

For the Windies, left-handed opener Evin Lewis has moved up 11 places to take 65th position after finishing with 86 runs from two matches while Rovman Powell has advanced 11 slots to take 127th position among batsmen. Among bowlers, captain Jason Holder has moved up six places to take 21st position after finishing with five wickets in the series.

There has been no change of positions in the MRF Tyres ICC ODI Team Rankings as New Zealand have gained one point to reach 112 points and remain in fifth position in a table led by South Africa while the Windies have lost one point and are still in ninth place.

The year would not have ended as desired for the Windies, who after failing to secure a direct qualifying berth for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019, are due to play in the ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifier 2018 in Zimbabwe in March.

Afghanistan, Hong Kong, Ireland, Netherlands, Papua New Guinea, Scotland and host Zimbabwe are the other teams confirmed for the 10-team Qualifier with the lineup due to be completed in Namibia in February 2018 when the finalists of the ICC World Cricket League Division 2 will book their berths.

Two teams from the ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifier 2018 will join Australia, Bangladesh, England, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa and Sri Lanka in the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 to be staged in the United Kingdom.

MRF Tyres ICC ODI Team Rankings (as on 27 December, after the New Zealand-Windies series):

Rank    Team                Points

South Africa      121
India                119
Australia           114
England            114
New Zealand     112 (+1)
Pakistan             99
Bangladesh         92
Sri Lanka            84
West Indies        76 (-1)
Afghanistan        54
Zimbabwe          52
Ireland              41

(Developed by David Kendix)

MRF Tyres ICC ODI Player Rankings (as on 27 December, after the India-Sri Lanka series and before the New Zealand-Windies series):

BATTING (top 10)

Rank      (+/-)       Player                     Team     Points    Avge     Highest Rating

   1           ( - )          Virat Kohli             Ind          876        55.74     889 v NZ at Kanpur 2017

   2           ( - )          AB de Villiers        SA           872        54.06     902 v NZ at Auckland 2015

   3           ( - )          David Warner       Aus         865        44.94     880 v Pak at Adelaide 2017

   4           ( - )          Babar Azam         Pak         846*!     58.60     846 v SL at Sharjah 2017

   5           ( - )          Rohit Sharma       Ind          816         45.23     825 v SL at Mohali 2017

   6           ( - )          Quinton de Kock  SA           808!       45.85     808 v Ban at East London 2017

   7           ( - )          Joe Root                Eng         802         50.00     808 v Win at Bristol 2017

   8           ( - )          Faf du Plessis      SA           773        43.90     791 v SL at Cape Town 2017

   9           ( - )          Hashim Amla       SA           766        51.25     901 v Eng at Trent Bridge 2012

  10         ( - )          Kane Williamson NZ           750        46.23     798 v SA at Centurion 2015

OTHER SELECTED RANKINGS

Rank      (+/-)      Player                    Team     Points   Avge     Highest Rating

65           (+11)      Evin Lewis            Win         497*      35.04     507 v NZ at Whangarei 2017
90=         (+30)      Henry Nicholls     NZ           439*!     38.45     439 v Win at Christchurch 2017

127         (+11)      Rovman Powell   Win         352*      21.21     368 v NZ at Whangarei 2017

135         (+89)      George Worker    NZ           333*      37.50     345 v Win at Christchurch 2017

BOWLING (top 10)

Rank      (+/-)      Player                    Team     Points    Avge     Eco.       Highest Rating

   1           ( - )          Hasan Ali              Pak         759*!     19.82     5.11       759 v SL at Sharjah 2017

   2           ( - )          Imran Tahir           SA           743         23.72     4.64       786 v SL at Johannesburg 2017

   3           ( - )          Jasprit Bumrah    Ind          729*      22.71     4.74       731 v SL at Mohali 2017

   4           (+3)         Trent Boult            NZ           723         24.65     4.99       766 v Ind at Delhi 2016

   5           (-1)          Josh Hazlewood  Aus         714         23.85     4.69       732 v Eng at Edgbaston 2017

   6           (-1)          Kagiso Rabada    SA           708         26.08     5.05       724 v Eng at Lord's 2017

   7           (-1)          Mitchell Starc        Aus         684         20.13     4.81       783 v NZ at Melbourne 2015

   8           ( - )          Rashid Khan         Afg          649*!     14.48     3.91       649 v Ire at Sharjah 2017

   9           ( - )          Liam Plunkett       Eng         646!       30.22     5.77       646 v Win at Southampton 2017

  10         (+4)         Mitchell Santner   NZ           644!       32.11     4.92       644 v Win at Christchurch 2017

OTHER SELECTED RANKINGS

Rank      (+/-)         Player                    Team     Points    Avge     Eco.       Highest Rating

21           (+6)         Jason Holder        Win         577        33.15     5.45       605 v SL at Bulawayo 2016

77           (+15)      Doug Bracewell   NZ           422*      30.31     5.04       437 v Ind at Dharamsala 2016

117=       (+54)      L. Ferguson          NZ           325*      38.23     6.13       334 v Win at Christchurch 2017

ALL-ROUNDERS (top five)

Rank      (+/-)      Player                    Team     Points    Highest Rating

   1           ( - )          M. Hafeez             Pak         352        438 v Ind at Kolkata 2013

   2           ( - )          S. Al Hasan           Ban         346        453 v Zim at Chittagong 2009

   3           ( - )          Angelo Mathews     SL           321        427 v Eng at Colombo (RPS) 2014

   4           ( - )          M. Nabi                Afg            316        349 v Ire at Greater Noida 2017

   5           ( - )          Ben Stokes           Eng            293        299 v Win at Bristol 2017

Image: Wikimedia Commons