Starc jumps to career-best ranking

Mitchell Starc’s blistering start to the Cricket World Cup has seen him leapfrog teammate Mitchell Johnson in the latest one-day international bowling rankings, as determined by the International Cricket Council.

Starc has claimed eight wickets in his two World Cup appearances, including a career-best 6-28 against New Zealand at Eden Park on Saturday which nearly rescued Australia (who remain the No.1 ranked team on the world).

Mitchell Starc nearly pulled off a miracle in New Zealand

The left-armer’s purple patch sees him move to a career-best fifth, one ahead of Johnson in the ladder of bowlers which Dale Steyn leads among players participating in the World Cup (Saeed Ajmal at No.1 and Sunil Narine at No.2 are not playing for Pakistan and the West Indies respectively in the tournament after being cited for illegal bowling actions).

Black Caps quick Tim Southee is the leading bowler of the tournament to date with 13 wickets, which has helped him jump 10 places to 12th, while his compatriot Trent Boult’s 10 wickets has seen him move into a career-high 24th after a rise of 23 places.

Vetern spinner Daniel Vettori’s eight wickets has promoted him five places, sneaking into the top 10 at ninth in the rankings.

Australia opener Aaron Finch is now officially among the top 10 batsmen in the world, with scores of 135 against England and 14 against the Black Caps seeing him climb four places in the rankings to be eighth overall - one spot ahead of Tasmanian George Bailey who moved from 10^th to ninth after making 55 in Melbourne.

New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum and South Africa’s David Miller are the biggest movers in the latest batting rankings.

McCullum, who has amassed 207 runs in four matches during the World Cup, is now 18^th after climbing 10 places while Miller has moved up 14 places to be 23rd after making 180 runs in his last three innings.

The batting table is headed by South Africa captain AB de Villiers who leads Sri Lanka batting maestro Kumar Sangakkara and Protea Hashim Amla.

De Villiers’ 217 runs in the tournament, including the fastest-ever 150 in ODI history against the West Indies at the SCG, has him just two ratings points short of becoming only the 11th batsman to break the 900-point barrier since the introduction of the current ICC player rankings system.

And Sri Lanka’s Tillakaratne Dilshan has become the number-one ranked allrounder in the world after making 229 runs with the bat and claiming three wickets with the ball, which sees him tip Bangladeshi star Shakib Al Hasan into second place.

Teams

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Batsmen

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Bowlers

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Allrounders

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