Riding on their morale-boosting three-wicket victory over India, South Africa have jumped two rating points to join the 1983 world champion on 118 points in the latest ICC team ranking.
South Africa, chasing a formidable total of 296 runs ran home after Robin Peterson smashed Ashish Nehra for 14 runs of the last over to bring their World Cup campaign back on track after losing their last encounter against England.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s men, however, are still placed at number two behind Australia, who lead the table with 131 points. South Africa leapfrogged Sri Lanka to claim the number three spot, missing the second rank by a fraction of a point in the chart which was released on Monday.
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The batting chart remained more or less the same with South Africa’s Hashim Amla and AB de Villiers continuing their good show at the top at the first and second spot.
Virat Kohli, the lone Indian in the top three, slipped a place to the fourth, swapping the position with Australia’s crisis-man Michael Hussey.
Virender Sehwag (eighth), Sachin Tendulkar (ninth) and Dhoni (sixth) retained their position in the top ten.
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Steyn into third place
South African speedster Dale Steyn, whose fiery spell of 5—50 saw India lose nine wickets for just 29 runs after going strong at 267 for one, made a jump of five places to achieve the career-best ranking of three.
Zaheer Khan is ranked 16, while off-spinner Harbhajan Singh is placed at 19th spot. Munaf Patel made a jump of ten places to finish at 32.
New Zealand skipper Daniel Vettori enjoys the top position with another South African fast bowler, Morne Morkel following him at number two.
There is no change in the top four rankings in the ODI all-rounders list with Shakib Al Hasan still leading the field.