Dananjaya reaches career-best position in ODI rankings

Dubai: Sri Lanka spinner Akila Dananjaya has made prominent gains in the MRF Tyres ICC ODI Player Rankings, after finishing a five-match home series against South Africa in style on Sunday.

PC: Twitter/ICC

The 24-year-old’s match-winning haul of six for 29 in the final match in Colombo helped Sri Lanka reduce the gap against their higher ranked opposition to 3-2, while also lifting him 22 places to a career-best 21st position after finishing with 14 wickets in the series.

He is also now on a career-high 600 rating points, an ICC report on Monday said.

Dananjaya’s team-mate Thisara Perera (up four places to 68th) is another one to move up the rankings for bowlers while captain Angelo Mathews and wicketkeeper-batsman Niroshan Dickwella have made noteworthy gains among batsmen.

Mathews, the leading scorer in the series with 235 runs and a highest of 97 not out in the last match, has gained two slots to reach 25th position while Dickwella has moved up four places to grab 35th position. Kusal Perera (up 16 places to 66th) has gained in the latest update, which also takes into account the drawn two-match series between the Netherlands and Nepal.

Sompal Kami (229th) and Gyanendra Malla (236th) are the leading batsmen for Nepal after notching a half-century each in the Amstelveen series while Daniel ter Braak (304th) is the highest-ranked batsman for the Netherlands.

South Africa slipped to fourth position

In the MRF Tyres ICC ODI Team Rankings, South Africa have slipped to fourth position despite the series win over Sri Lanka owing to the large difference in points between the two sides. South Africa have gone down from 113 to 110 points while eighth-ranked Sri Lanka have gained three points and moved to 80 points in the list led by England with 127 points.

For South Africa, player of the series Jean-Paul Duminy’s 227 runs at a strike-rate of 135.9 have seen him gain 11 slots to reach joint-40th position among batsmen even as regular captain Faf du Plessis has dropped out of the top 10 after missing the last two matches of the series.

South Africa fast bowler Lungi Ngidi has gained 57 places to reach 88th position after finishing with 10 wickets while spinner Tabraiz Shamsi’s six wickets in the series have lifted him 47 places to 100th position.

Meanwhile, left-arm fast bowler Fred Klaassen of the Netherlands has made his way to 203rd position with figures of three for 38 and three for 30 in the two home matches against Nepal while leg-spinner Sandeep Lamichhane of Nepal finds himself in 217th position after finishing with four wickets. (UNI)