Herath becomes highest-ranked Sri Lanka bowler

Rangana Herath being congratulated by teammates

Sri Lanka's left-arm spinner Rangana Herath has become the highest-ranked Sri Lanka bowler in the Reliance ICC Player Rankings for Test bowlers after a good performance in the Lord's Test which ended in a draw on Thursday.

Herath's figures of 2-64 and 3-87 have helped him to move up five places to a career-best 19th position. In doing, he has leapfrogged team-mate Ajantha Mendis who has dropped two places to 20th position after missing the Test. A player loses one per cent of his rating for every Test he misses.
Also achieving their career-best rankings to date are England fast bowlers Steven Finn and Chris Tremlett.

Finn, who had match figures of 4-139, has gained three places in the table and is now in 15th position while Tremlett, who had match figures of 3-116, has climbed four places to 24th spot. The two fast bowlers are still in the qualification period. A bowler qualifies for a full rating when he reaches 100 Test wickets and with one more Test remaining, the two can potentially improve their rankings further depending how they perform in Southampton.

Also heading in the right direction are Sri Lanka's pace trio of Dilhara Fernando, Chanaka Welegedara and Suranga Lakmal. Fernando, in the latest rankings, is in 35th position (up by two places), Welegedara in 53rd (up by eight places) and Lakmal in 71st (up by 15 places).

In the Reliance ICC Player Rankings for Test batsmen, England opener Alastair Cook has earned eight ratings points for his efforts of 96 and 106 which has not only given him his career-best rating but has also narrowed the gap with four-ranked Kumar Sangakkara of Sri Lanka to just one rating point.

Other batsmen making upward movements include Ian Bell in 17th (up by one place), Tillekeratne Dilshan in 25th (up by nine places), and NT Paranavithana and Prasanna Jayawardena who have both moved up four places each to occupy 40th and 47th positions, respectively.

The latest rankings have also seen some of the biggest names in cricket take a dip.

Mahela Jayawardena and Thilan Samaraweera have dropped two places each to 12th and 13th, respectively, Kevin Pietersen has slipped three places to 29th spot and Andrew Strauss has fallen four places to 33rd position.

The batting table is still jointly led by India's Sachin Tendulkar and Jacques Kallis of South Africa with Jonathan Trott of England in sole possession of third place after Kumar Sangakkara slipped one place to fourth spot.

Meanwhile, the drawn Test means England will not now be able to achieve the number-two ranking in the Reliance ICC Test Championship. The best series result it can now achieve is 2-0 which will put it along side South Africa on 117 ratings points but it will be ranked behind the Proteas when the ratings are calculated beyond the decimal point.

For a full view of how the result of this series might affect the ICC Test Championship table use the predictor function on the ICC website at http://icc-cricket.yahoo.net/match_zone/test_predictor.php. Please note that the ICC Test Championship table is updated only at the end of each series.

To understand how the team and player rankings are calculated, please go to http://www.relianceiccrankings.com/faq.php.

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