Sangakkara and De Villiers bring fight for No.1 batting position

AB de Villiers of South Africa and Kumar Sangakkara of Sri Lanka have brought their battle for the coveted one-number batting spot in the Reliance ICC Player Rankings for ODI Batsmen to Sydney when the two will go head to head in the first quarter-final of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015.

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

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

Not too far behind the two batsmen are Hashim Amla of South Africa and India’s Virat Kohli.

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

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

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

International Cricket Council (ICC) ODI rankings:

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

-icc-cricket.com