AssassinatedDevil
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Steve Smith retains the No.1 spot with the rest of the top six remaining unchanged.
South Africa’s AB de Villiers has returned to the top 10 of the MRF Tyres ICC Test Rankings for batsmen after his stunning match-shaping hundred in the second Test against Australia in Port Elizabeth.
Steve Smith retains top spot and the rest of the leading six is unchanged while de Villiers jumps five places from 12th to seventh.
His team-mate Hashim Amla climbs one place to ninth with Pakistan’s Azhar Ali dropping one spot to eighth and England opener Alastair Cook dropping two places to tenth.
New Zealand’s Ross Taylor drops out of the top 10 from ninth to 11th position.
De Villiers made 126 not out in the second innings of South Africa’s six-wicket victory that levelled the four-match series at 1-1 with two Tests still to play.
It was de Villiers’ first Test hundred since January 2015 and the fifth time he has passed 50 since he returned to Test match cricket in December last year.
De Villiers, 34, spent almost two years out of the five-day game, missing 18 Tests for South Africa.
He marked his return to red-ball cricket with 53 against Zimbabwe in the Boxing Day Test also at Port Elizabeth.
He followed up with three fifties against India and now a fifty and century against Australia.
When he was caught at short leg by Cameron Bancroft off Nathan Lyon for 28 in South Africa’s second-innings run chase in Port Elizabeth, it was the first time he had been dismissed by a bowler in this series.
His unbeaten 126 from 146 balls in the first innings – that helped give South Africa a lead of 139 – was described by former South Africa captain Graeme Smith as “one of the great Test innings”.
De Villiers himself said: “I was very motivated to prove to everyone that I can still play the game, even though I have been away for a while.
“I was just tired of playing. I was just flat, physically and mentally. There were other factors, I had become a dad, there were a lot of things happening in my life. I felt I needed to breathe a bit.
“It was right up there with the best feeling ever. I was very nervous in the nineties. I was constantly reminding myself through the nineties that it's not about yourself, it's about contributing as many runs as possible to the team. That made me a feel a little bit better.”
De Villiers reached No.1 in the rankings in March 2012 and his highest rating of 935 points came two years later, coincidentally, after a century against Australia at St George’s Park, Port Elizabeth. That rating is the joint 11th highest in history.
He was seventh in the batting rankings before his break from Test cricket following ducks in three successive home Tests against England in 2015-16.
https://www.icc-cricket.com/news/643638
Test bowlers: Rabada back at No.1 after Port Elizabeth haul
Kagiso Rabada’s 11-wicket haul in the second Test at St George’s Park has propelled him back to the top of the MRF Tyres ICC Test Rankings for bowlers.
Having been No.1 briefly at the start of the year, he replaces England’s James Anderson and has reached 902 points, his highest career rating to date.
Australia’s opening bowler Mitchell Starc drops four places to ninth after taking a single wicket during the Port Elizabeth Test.
Rabada took 5/96 and 6/54 in South Africa’s six-wicket win that levelled the four-match series at 1-1 with two to play.
The match figures of 11/150 are the second best by a South African bowler against Australia.
Unfortunately for South Africa and Rabada he will miss the rest of the series following his suspension for repeated breaches of the ICC Code of Conduct.
At only 22, his is a remarkable rise to prominence. He has taken 135 wickets in 28 Tests and already has four 10-wicket hauls. Dale Steyn is the only South African to have taken more but his five have come in a career spanning 86 Tests.
He already has more 10-wicket hauls some fine bowlers like Glenn McGrath, James Anderson, Courtney Walsh, Curtly Ambrose and Allan Donald.
Plenty of very decent bowlers never even took a 10-wicket haul in a Test match.
No fast bowler has come close to the number of wickets Rabada has taken in the period since he made his Test debut against India in November 2015.
Australia’s Josh Hazlewood, with 106 wickets, is the closest quick to him and only India spinner Ravi Ashwin, with 166, has taken more wickets in that time than Rabada.
The South African now has the second-best Test strike rate of all time (38.9) among bowlers who have taken 100 or more wickets. Only the 19th-century England medium-pacer George Lohmann is ahead of him.
"It's what I always wanted to do,” Rabada said when he reached No.1 for the first time in January. “Now, I just want to keep performing and winning games for the team and to keep getting better and better.
"I just need to just do more and more, striving for perfection" - Rabada
“There's always something you can improve on. Once you get something right, there's always something new that you can work on. I just need to just do more and more, striving for perfection. You are never going to reach perfection but at least [try to] get there and thereabouts."
Rabada clearly enjoyed the promotion to taking the new ball – or the “hard, new rock” – as he put it, following the omission of Morne Morkel in Port Elizabeth.
“I would like to open,” he said in January but added: “It's a bit tough at the moment because there's two very good bowlers in those roles. I just like to bowl wherever the team requires me to and set my own aspirations aside.”
https://www.icc-cricket.com/news/643639
South Africa’s AB de Villiers has returned to the top 10 of the MRF Tyres ICC Test Rankings for batsmen after his stunning match-shaping hundred in the second Test against Australia in Port Elizabeth.
Steve Smith retains top spot and the rest of the leading six is unchanged while de Villiers jumps five places from 12th to seventh.
His team-mate Hashim Amla climbs one place to ninth with Pakistan’s Azhar Ali dropping one spot to eighth and England opener Alastair Cook dropping two places to tenth.
New Zealand’s Ross Taylor drops out of the top 10 from ninth to 11th position.
De Villiers made 126 not out in the second innings of South Africa’s six-wicket victory that levelled the four-match series at 1-1 with two Tests still to play.
It was de Villiers’ first Test hundred since January 2015 and the fifth time he has passed 50 since he returned to Test match cricket in December last year.
De Villiers, 34, spent almost two years out of the five-day game, missing 18 Tests for South Africa.
He marked his return to red-ball cricket with 53 against Zimbabwe in the Boxing Day Test also at Port Elizabeth.
He followed up with three fifties against India and now a fifty and century against Australia.
When he was caught at short leg by Cameron Bancroft off Nathan Lyon for 28 in South Africa’s second-innings run chase in Port Elizabeth, it was the first time he had been dismissed by a bowler in this series.
His unbeaten 126 from 146 balls in the first innings – that helped give South Africa a lead of 139 – was described by former South Africa captain Graeme Smith as “one of the great Test innings”.
De Villiers himself said: “I was very motivated to prove to everyone that I can still play the game, even though I have been away for a while.
“I was just tired of playing. I was just flat, physically and mentally. There were other factors, I had become a dad, there were a lot of things happening in my life. I felt I needed to breathe a bit.
“It was right up there with the best feeling ever. I was very nervous in the nineties. I was constantly reminding myself through the nineties that it's not about yourself, it's about contributing as many runs as possible to the team. That made me a feel a little bit better.”
De Villiers reached No.1 in the rankings in March 2012 and his highest rating of 935 points came two years later, coincidentally, after a century against Australia at St George’s Park, Port Elizabeth. That rating is the joint 11th highest in history.
He was seventh in the batting rankings before his break from Test cricket following ducks in three successive home Tests against England in 2015-16.
https://www.icc-cricket.com/news/643638
Test bowlers: Rabada back at No.1 after Port Elizabeth haul
Kagiso Rabada’s 11-wicket haul in the second Test at St George’s Park has propelled him back to the top of the MRF Tyres ICC Test Rankings for bowlers.
Having been No.1 briefly at the start of the year, he replaces England’s James Anderson and has reached 902 points, his highest career rating to date.
Australia’s opening bowler Mitchell Starc drops four places to ninth after taking a single wicket during the Port Elizabeth Test.
Rabada took 5/96 and 6/54 in South Africa’s six-wicket win that levelled the four-match series at 1-1 with two to play.
The match figures of 11/150 are the second best by a South African bowler against Australia.
Unfortunately for South Africa and Rabada he will miss the rest of the series following his suspension for repeated breaches of the ICC Code of Conduct.
At only 22, his is a remarkable rise to prominence. He has taken 135 wickets in 28 Tests and already has four 10-wicket hauls. Dale Steyn is the only South African to have taken more but his five have come in a career spanning 86 Tests.
He already has more 10-wicket hauls some fine bowlers like Glenn McGrath, James Anderson, Courtney Walsh, Curtly Ambrose and Allan Donald.
Plenty of very decent bowlers never even took a 10-wicket haul in a Test match.
No fast bowler has come close to the number of wickets Rabada has taken in the period since he made his Test debut against India in November 2015.
Australia’s Josh Hazlewood, with 106 wickets, is the closest quick to him and only India spinner Ravi Ashwin, with 166, has taken more wickets in that time than Rabada.
The South African now has the second-best Test strike rate of all time (38.9) among bowlers who have taken 100 or more wickets. Only the 19th-century England medium-pacer George Lohmann is ahead of him.
"It's what I always wanted to do,” Rabada said when he reached No.1 for the first time in January. “Now, I just want to keep performing and winning games for the team and to keep getting better and better.
"I just need to just do more and more, striving for perfection" - Rabada
“There's always something you can improve on. Once you get something right, there's always something new that you can work on. I just need to just do more and more, striving for perfection. You are never going to reach perfection but at least [try to] get there and thereabouts."
Rabada clearly enjoyed the promotion to taking the new ball – or the “hard, new rock” – as he put it, following the omission of Morne Morkel in Port Elizabeth.
“I would like to open,” he said in January but added: “It's a bit tough at the moment because there's two very good bowlers in those roles. I just like to bowl wherever the team requires me to and set my own aspirations aside.”
https://www.icc-cricket.com/news/643639
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