Steve Smith closes in on Don Bradman, reaches second highest batting points ever

[Sean143]

Career-best rankings for Malan, Mitchell Marsh, Cummins and Overton.

· The Australian captain has now been at the top of the Test rankings for almost two years

Steve Smith, the top-ranked Test batsman, continued his phenomenal run to rise to new heights in the MRF Tyres ICC Test Player Rankings, moving closer towards Don Bradman’s highest-ever ranking points, after a match-winning double-century in the third Test against England in Perth.

The Australian captain’s knock of 239, which helped his team regain the Ashes by taking an unassailable 3-0 lead in the five-match series, has seen him reach a tally of 945 points to take joint-second position in the all-time list, along with Len Hutton. Smith had reached 941 points after the first Test in Adelaide before dropping briefly to 938 after the Brisbane Test.

Smith, who has gained seven points after his performance in Perth to overtake Peter May, Ricky Ponting and Jack Hobbs. He is now within 16 points of Bradman’s tally of 961 points, and has had a minimum of 918 points over the past 12 months, which is 25 more than what second-placed Virat Kohli has as of now. His batting average of 62.32 is second only to Bradman in terms of batsmen with at least 20 Test innings and by the time the fourth Test of the series starts on Boxing Day, he would have been the number one for two years.

Smith is already ahead of Bradman with regard to the number of Tests at the top. He has now been number one for 114 Tests, which is the fifth-most in a list led by Gary Sobers (189 Tests) and with Viv Richards (179), Lara (140) and Tendulkar (139) the only ones ahead of him in this list.

Batsmen to reach career-best rankings after the Perth Test include Dawid Malan of England (up 47 places to a career-best 52nd) after his innings of 140 and 54 in Perth and Mitchell Marsh of Australia (up 44 places to 65th) after his score of 181. Jonny Bairstow (up one place to 15th) and Usman Khawaja (up two places to 19th) are the other batsmen to have moved up.

In the bowlers’ list led by England’s new-ball bowler James Anderson, Australia pace bowler Josh Hazlewood has gained one slot to move into the top five after finishing with eight wickets in the match. Pat Cummins of Australia (up four places to a career-best 39th) and Craig Overton of England (up seven places to 89th) have also gained in the latest rankings.

MRF Tyres ICC Test Player Rankings (as of 19 December, after the third Test between Australia and England in Perth:

Batsmen (top 10)

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

1 ( - ) Steve Smith Aus 945! 62.32 945 v Eng at Perth 2017

2 ( - ) Virat Kohli Ind 893 53.75 895 v Ban at Hyderabad 2017

3 (+1) C. Pujara Ind 873 52.96 888 v SL at Nagpur 2017

4 (+1) Kane Williamson NZ 855 50.62 893 v Aus at Perth 2015

5 (-2) Joe Root Eng 852 52.37 917 v Aus at Trent Bridge 2015

6 ( - ) David Warner Aus 801 47.97 880 v NZ at Perth 2015

7 ( - ) Hashim Amla SA 795 49.87 907 v Pak at Abu Dhabi 2013

8 ( - ) Azhar Ali Pak 755 46.62 787 v Aus at Melbourne 2016

9 ( - ) D. Chandimal SL 743! 43.94 743 v Ind at Delhi 2017

10 ( - ) Ross Taylor NZ 739 48.04 871 v Win at Hamilton 2013

Other selected rankings

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

15 (+1) Jonny Bairstow Eng 717 39.80 772 v SA at Old Trafford 2017

19 (+2) Usman Khawaja Aus 659 44.33 747 v Pak at Sydney 2017

52= (+47) Dawid Malan Eng 501*! 35.07 501 v Aus at Perth 2017

65 (+44) Mitchell Marsh Aus 434*! 26.71 434 v Eng at Perth 2017

98= (+7) Pat Cummins Aus 342*! 27.55 342 v Eng at Perth 2017

(+18) James Vince Eng 342*! 23.17 342 v Aus at Perth 2017

Bowlers (top 10)

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

1 ( - ) James Anderson Eng 892 27.35 896 v Win at Lord's 2017

2 ( - ) Kagiso Rabada SA 876! 22.71 876 v Ban at Bloemfontein 2017

3 ( - ) R. Jadeja Ind 870 23.73 899 v Aus at Ranchi 2017

4 ( - ) R. Ashwin Ind 829 25.44 904 v Eng at Mumbai 2016

5 (+1) Josh Hazlewood Aus 824 25.46 863 v Ind at Bengaluru 2017

6 (-1) Rangana Herath SL 799 28.04 867 v Zim at Harare 2016

7 ( - ) Neil Wagner NZ 784 27.87 785 v Win at Wellington 2017

8 ( - ) Mitchell Starc Aus 782 27.52 805 v Pak at Brisbane 2016

9 ( - ) Nathan Lyon Aus 773 31.55 774 v Eng at Adelaide 2017

10 ( - ) Dale Steyn SA 748 22.30 909 v Win at Centurion 2014

Other selected rankings

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

39 (+4) Pat Cummins Aus 420*! 27.00 420 v Eng at Perth 2017

89 (+7) Craig Overton Eng 145*! 37.66 145 v Aus at Perth 2017

All-rounders (top five)

Rank (+/-) Player Team Pts Highest Rating

1 ( - ) Shakib Al Hasan Ban 438 489 v Aus at Mirpur 2017

2 ( - ) Ravindra Jadeja Ind 415 438 v SL at Colombo (SSC) 2017

3 ( - ) Ben Stokes Eng 372/* 396 v Win at Lord's 2017

4 ( - ) R. Ashwin Ind 369 493 v Eng at Mohali 2016

5 ( - ) Moeen Ali Eng 326 409 v SA at Old Trafford 2017

*indicates provisional rating; a batsman qualifies for a full rating after playing 40 Test innings; a bowler qualifies for a full rating when he reaches 100 Test wickets.

! indicates career-highest rating

Source link:https://www.icc-cricket.com/media-releases/569571

 

[Proactive_]

Easily the best batsman of this generation..

 

[MenInG]

This is something else now - Smith on his way to mega greatness now

 

[UN talkz]

Two more centuries in next 2 matches and i think he will break DON's record.

 

[WhenSultansBowled]

(Bangladesh and UAE aside): He's been unstoppable everywhere!

Extraordinary player, indeed:

http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/player/267192.html?class=1;template=results;type=batting

Wow!

 

[Ab Fan]

From being the Australian equivalent of Chris Martin to this. Simply outrageous.

 

[Arham_PakFan]

Best of this era.

 

[Convict]

Why did Khawaja move up?

 

[QalandarFan]

Easily the best Test Batsman of this era, love watching him play unless of course it is against us.

 

[Gilly]

Why did Khawaja move up?

Jumped Tamim Iqbal and Shakib Al Hasan, not much in it so he probably only picked up a couple of points to jump them.

 

[giri26]

Brilliant player and well a deserved rating.

 

[Hermoine Green]

A guy who started as leggie couldn't even hit a shot properly and now this. Simply brilliant.
Our youngsters can learn lots lots lots of things from this guy, if you do hard work with determination, then definitely you can become whatever you want.

But Alas! Who will tell this to our players?

 

[SL_Fan]

Onya Smithy. Has looked pretty much unstoppable in the longer form last few years. Just keep piling on them runs and tons. I don't think teams have a clue where to bowl to him. Good line and length or straight he flicks away to leg. Bowl short and he's already in a good position to either pull it or easily get out of the way. Bowl it a bit wide and he whacks it through the offside. A little wider and he lets it go no probs. You need to bowl a jaffa to get rid of him if the ball is not doing a lot otherwise just keeps toying with the bowlers. Runs for days haha.

 

[Bilal7]

Best of the new generation in test cricket. Fantastic player.

 

[Justcrazy]

If he has good next two test matches , Bradman record may be broken.

Its a freakish thing to do.

 

[bujhee kom]

Is now pushing into ATG category.

 

[Ozymandiasza]

An actual ATG in the making. Well done, I suppose.

 

[hadi123]

Absolute gun. Remember people used to make fun of him as he started his career as a mediocre leg spinner. Now he's on the way to becoming an ATG.

 

[MenInG]

https://www.sport24.co.za/Cricket/Ashes/smith-milestone-as-oz-chip-away-at-england-lead-20180105

Sydney - Steve Smith racked up another milestone as he continued to torment England and Usman Khawaja neared a century to put Australia in a strong position after day two of the final Ashes Test in Sydney on Friday.

The Australian skipper became the second fastest batsman to reach 6 000 Test runs in his 111th innings, second only to the legendary Don Bradman.

Smith, with three centuries in this five-match series, has been the bane of the England team and was potentially heading towards another ton.

At the close, Smith was on 44 with Khawaja reaching his highest score of the series on 91 in Australia's 193 for two in reply to England's 346 first innings.

So far in the series Smith has scored 648 runs at 162.

The pair shared in a 107-run partnership after the loss of openers Cameron Bancroft and David Warner.

Khawaja raised his third fifty of the series with a six down the ground off Moeen Ali.

Debutant Mason Crane, the youngest specialist spinner at 20 to play for England in 90 years, troubled Smith and Khawaja with his wrist spin, enticing some edges and false shots to finish with no wicket for 58 off 17 overs.

Warner reached his fourth half-century of the series before James Anderson coaxed an edge to wicketkeeper Jonny Bairstow for 56 after Bancroft was bowled by Stuart Broad for a seven-ball duck.

England's maligned tail earlier piled on runs before the tourists were bowled out at lunch.

Newcomer Tom Curran smacked 39 off 65 balls, Moeen Ali hit 30 and Broad clubbed two sixes in his 31 off 32 balls as England lashed out late in the extended morning session.

Smith pulled off a stunning one-handed catch to dismiss Dawid Malan for 62, but the Australians were guilty of two embarrassing dropped catches to give England a helping hand.

The Australian skipper made an athletic diving catch to end the dangerous batsman's innings at second slip off Mitchell Starc.

Malan, who hit a century in the third Perth Test, has scored 378 runs at 47.25 in the series, second only to Alastair Cook for England.

But Australia then dropped two regulation catches in the space of four balls.

Pat Cummins put down Curran on 21 at mid-on off Nathan Lyon then in Cummins' next over Josh Hazlewood made a dreadful hash of a skied catch at mid-on from Moeen on 22.

It was the 11th dropped catch by Australia's fielders in the series, with five coming off Lyon's bowling.

But Cummins made partial amends when he had Moeen caught off his glove to a lifter for 30, giving wicketkeeper Tim Paine his fourth catch of the innings.

Broad and Curran hit out late in the session with Broad clubbing Cummins for two sixes to the delight of England's Barmy Army supporters.

Curran finally fell to a bat-pad catch by Bancroft for 39 off 65 balls to give Cummins his fourth wicket.

Broad went for another heave on 31, only to top-edge behind the wicket for Smith to take the catch and give spinner Lyon his only wicket.

Australia have already clinched the Ashes with an unassailable 3-0 lead in the five-Test series.

 

[Abdullah719]

Smith's rating is back up to 937, just 10 short of his best.

Bradman's 961 looks so far away...

 

[delpiero10]

Smith's rating is back up to 937, just 10 short of his best.

Bradman's 961 looks so far away...

Smith should gain a few more points after the 5th test if he can match his batting average at The Oval (which stands at a mere 144)

 

[Ram Shekhar]

Smith should gain a few more points after the 5th test if he can match his batting average at The Oval (which stands at a mere 144)

Hopefully the useless English side can make him bat 2 times instead of folding for an innings loss.

 

[delpiero10]

Hopefully the useless English side can make him bat 2 times instead of folding for an innings loss.

I'm seriously hoping that Australia bat first and don't even think about making a declaration. Let Smith bat all 5 days if possible.

 

[Suleiman]

If you told anyone that Smith and Bradman will be mentioned in the same sentence at some point in 2010-2011... you'd have looked like a complete clown.

 

[Justcrazy]

If you told anyone that Smith and Bradman will be mentioned in the same sentence at some point in 2010-2011... you'd have looked like a complete clown.

That is why we say truth is stranger than fiction.

 

[jnaveen1980]

Joe ROot had 917 at one point !!! Must be a big fall.

 

[Abdullah719]

Joe ROot had 917 at one point !!! Must be a big fall.

Way back in 2015.