Dhoni knocks Smith off top spot in Reliance Mobile ICC Player Rankings

Indian one-day captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni has knocked his South African counterpart Graeme Smith off top spot in the Reliance Mobile ICC Player Rankings for ODI batsmen after a good series against Sri Lanka which concluded in Colombo on Friday.

Dubai, Aug.30 : Indian one-day captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni has knocked his South African counterpart Graeme Smith off top spot in the Reliance Mobile ICC Player Rankings for ODI batsmen after a good series against Sri Lanka which concluded in Colombo on Friday.

According to an ICC media release here, the 27-year-old from Jharkhand was the leading run scorer in the five-match series against Sri Lanka with 193 runs and this made sure his side clinched its first-ever ODI series in Sri Lanka and in the process displaced Smith at the top of the rankings.

honi, who won the player-of-the-series award, was on top of the batting list for a week in April 2006 and is the first Indian batsman to head the batting chart since Sachin Tendulkar following the tri-series in Australia in March earlier this year.

Tendulkar, however, has dropped three places to ninth in the latest rankings after missing the series in Sri Lanka because of elbow injury. A player loses one per cent of his rating for missing every match.

Yuvraj Singh is the third Indian batsmen in the top 20, but the left-hander has dropped three places after scoring just 72 runs in the series and shares 18th position with England's Ian Bell who has jumped seven places after a series of good performances in the first three ODIs against South Africa so far.

Besides Dhoni, Suresh Raina is the only other India batsman to improve his batting ranking. The 21-year-old left-handed batsman scored 157 runs in the series and was rewarded by rising 18 places to 35th position.

ANI