Akila Dananjaya moves up to career-best position in ICC Rankings

1991

Following a prolific series, JP Duminy, the South Africa all-rounder, rose several places in the batting and all-rounder rankings tables.

Duminy rose 11 spots to No. 40 in the batting charts of the MRF Tyres ICC ODI Player Rankingsafter accumulating 227 runs at 56.75. Although he managed just two wickets with his part-time off-spin, he shot up 10 places to 23rd on the table for all-rounders.

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Quinton de Kock, who was South Africa’s second-highest run-getter with 213 runs in the series, retained his seventh rank. However, South Africa’s experienced duo of Faf du Plessis and Hashim Amla endured difficult series, and that was reflected in the rankings. Du Plessis, who picked up an injury mid-way, slipped three spots to No.11 while Amla reached No.14, dropping two places.

Lungi Ngidi was South Africa’s best bowler in the series with 10 scalps from four games, and the 22-year-old was rewarded for the effort with a 57-place surge to the 88th rank on the bowlers’ ranking charts.

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Kagiso Rabada took six wickets from four games and climbed one place to No.8. Tabraiz Shamsi’s left-arm wrist-spin, which earned him six wickets in three matches, helped him climb 47 places to the 100th rank. Andile Phehlukwayo’s nine wickets from five games helped him climb six places to 52nd.

South Africa had sealed the series with three successive wins, but with Sri Lanka bouncing back for two consolation victories in the end, their players also made gains in the MRF ICC ODI Rankings update.

Akila Dananjaya rose 22 spots on the bowling chart

Most notably, Akila Dananjaya (14 wickets), the right-arm mystery spinner who bamboozled South Africa in the final ODI with figures of 6/29, went up 22 places on the bowling charts and now sits at No.21 with 600 rating points, a career-high for him. With that he became the highest ranked Sri Lankan bowler in the 50-over format, seven spots above Suranga Lakmal, who slipped four places after a relatively mediocre series.

Thisara Perera climbed seven places to 25th on the all-rounder’s table and also rose four places in the bowling charts to reach 68th.

As for the batsmen, the most notable leap was for Kusal Perera who jumped 16 spots to be ranked 66th. Angelo Mathews, who finished with 235 runs at 78.33 to top the batting charts for the series, got a two-place bump to No.25.

Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah and Shakib Al Hasan continue to top the charts for batsmen, bowlers and all-rounders respectively.