Hussey creates history in ICC rankings, Indians show improvement too

Dubai, Jan 7 (UNI) Australia's run machine Michael Hussey became the 24th batsmen in the history of Test cricket to reach 900 points in the ICC players ranking.

Hussey's knocks of 41 and 145 not out in his side's 122-run win over India at Sydney were enough to give him 18 rating points, putting him exactly on 900 points, just one behind team-mate Ricky Ponting.

Along with Hussey, Andrew Symonds who score 162 not out and 61 in the Sydney Test, too shot up in the ratings. He moved twelve places up the ladder and is now into the top 20 for the first time in his career.

India's VVS Laxman gained three places in the batting rankings and is now back into the top 20 to 18th position.

Despite losing the match, it was not all bad news for India.

Apart from Laxman's improvements, Sachin Tendulkar moved up four places to 13th position and once again became the highest-ranked Indian player, ahead of Rahul Dravid, who dropped one place to 15th spot.

West Indies' Shivnarine Chanderpaul gained three places to move to the seventh spot after a gritty performance in the second Test against South Africaat Cape Town.

Sri Lanka's Kumar Sangakkara has still occupied the top spot while South Africa's Jacques Kallis is in second position.

In the ICC Player Rankings for Test bowlers three bowlers in the top 10 Stuart Clark and Brett Lee of Australia and Dale Steyn of South Africa, all reached career peaks.

Steyn has overtaken team-mate Makhaya Ntini to become his country's highest-ranked bowler for the first time.

Just outside the top 20, Andre Nel of South Africa (up three places to 21st position), Daniel Vettori of New Zealand (up two places to 22nd) and India's Harbhajan Singh (up two places to 26th) are all showing good form.

India's RP Singh and the West Indies' Dwayne Bravo, both gained eight places to move to 32nd and 33rd positions, respectively.

Sri Lanka's Muttiah Muralitharan is still way in front followed by Australia's Stuart Clark in second place and Steyn at third.

Meanwhile, there were lot of movements of in the ICC's Player rankings for Test all-rounders.

Vettori has overtaken South Africa's Shaun Pollock into second place while Lee and Bravo each moved up two places to sixth and eighth spots, respectively.

South Africa's Jaques Kallis is still sitting at the top spot with Andrew Flintoff of England in second place.

UNI XC RAR HT1754