De Villiers, Sangakkara battle for top batting spot

Melbourne, March 16 (IANS) AB de Villiers of South Africa and Kumar Sangakkara of Sri Lanka have brought their battle for the coveted No.1 spot in the ICC rankings for One-Day International (ODI) batsmen to Sydney where the two will go head-to-head in the first quarter-final of the cricket World Cup on Wednesday.

De Villiers started the year leading Sangakkara by 76 points and when the two players will take the field, the South African will be leading the Sri Lankan by 38 points. Both the cricketers are enjoying great form with de Villiers having scored 417 runs to date in the World Cup and Sangakkara leading the field with 496 runs, including four centuries.

While de Villiers has gained eight points since the start of the tournament to enjoy his career-high rating of 899, Sangakkara has gained three places and 68 points to sit on 861 points, also his career-high rating.

Amla is in third position, 14 points behind Sangakkara while Kohli will go into Thursday's second quarter-final against Bangladesh here, trailing the South African by four points.

While the four top batsmen have consolidated their positions in the latest chart, there are a few others who have made upward movements following their performances in the second half of the pool stages and will aim to continue to head in the right direction when they feature in the knockouts.

Inside the top-10, India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni has gained two places and is now in eighth spot while Australia's Glenn Maxwell has jumped eight places to occupy a career-best ninth position, just 17 points behind Dhoni.

Outside the top 10, Suresh Raina of India is in 17th position (up three places), Pakistan's Ahmed Shehzad 24th (up two places), Australia's David Warner 25th (up five places), Mushfiqur Rahim of Bangladesh 27th (up seven places), Australia's Steven Smith 31st (up six places), New Zealand's duo of Martin Guptill 34th (up eight places) and Corey Anderson 39th (up eight places), Bangladesh's Mahmudullah 44th (up 17 places) and Shahid Afridi of Pakistan 44th (up three places).

Zimbabwe's former captain Brendan Taylor leads the batsmen who have gained places in the table but will not feature in the knockouts.

Taylor, who is the second leading run-getter with 433 runs, has rocketed 13 places to claim 16th spot while others include England pair of Jos Buttler in 22nd (up six places) and Ian Bell 23rd (up four places), Afghanistan's Samiullah Shenwari 48th (up four places) and Zimbabwe's Sean Williams 49th (up eight places).

In the bowlers' rankings, Dale Steyn of South Africa and Australia's Mitchell Starc have Saeed Ajmal's No.1 ranking firmly within their sights. Steyn has gained one place to rise to second to trail the absent Pakistan off-spinner by just five points.

Starc, who started the World Cup in seventh, is now on a career-high third after leading the bowlers' list with 16 wickets. He is four points behind Steyn and nine points behind Saeed.

England's James Anderson and Morne Morkel are the others inside the top 10. Anderson has gained one place to occupy sixth while Morkel is 10th after rising two places.

New Zealand's Trent Boult leads the charge of others outside the top 10, vaulting nine places to claim a career-best 15th, thanks to his 15 wickets in the World Cup.

Lasith Malinga of Sri Lanka has climbed six places to 27th after his 11 wickets in the series, West Indies captain Jason Holder has joined his Sri Lanka counterpart Angelo Mathews in 28th after taking nine wickets, India's Umesh Yadav has climbed eight places to 34th after his 10 wickets and James Faulkner of Australia has leaped 12 places to 35th.

International Cricket Council (ICC) ODI rankings:

Batsmen:
1. AB de Villiers (South Africa) 899 points
2. Kumar Sangakkara (Sri Lanka) 861
3. Hashim Amla (South Africa) 847
4. Virat Kohli (India) 843
5. Tillakaratne Dilshan (Sri Lanka) 802
6. Kane Williamson (New Zealand) 769
7. Shikhar Dhawan (India) 758
8. Mahendra Singh Dhoni (India) 731
9. Glenn Maxwell (Australia) 714
10. George Bailey (Australia) 708

Bowlers:
1. Saeed Ajmal (Pakistan) 722
2. Dale Steyn (South Africa) 717
3. Mitchell Starc (Australia) 713
4. Sunil Narine (West Indies) 712
5. Imran Tahir (South Africa) 699
6. James Anderson (England) 670
7. Shakib Al Hasan (Bangladesh) 667
8. Mitchell Johnson (Australia) 666
9. Daniel Vettori (New Zealand) 659
10. Morne Morkel (South Africa) 658