Rohit, Umesh jump up places in latest ICC ODI rankings

Melbourne, March 31: Indian opener Rohit Sharma and right-arm pacer Umesh Yadav made an upward climb in the latest Intertiol Cricket Council (ICC) One-Day Intertiol (ODI) player rankings, released Tuesday.

Yadav broke into the top 20 for the first time in his career following his 15 wickets in the World Cup, including four for 72 in the semi-fil against eventual champions Australia. Yadav has rocketed 16 places to join England’s James Tredwell in the 18th position.

Rohit has also headed in the upward direction after achieving a career-best ranking of 12th. He scored 330 runs in the tourment for which he has been rewarded with a jump of seven places.

World Cup champions Australia have retained the top spot in the ODI team rankings with 122 points and won $175,000 for retaining the top spot, while India won $75,000 for finishing second with 116 points.

There is no change in the top five position in the batting rankings but the biggest movers were Australia’s Steven Smith and New Zealand’s Martin Guptill, who were med in the ICC “Team of the World Cup” on Monday.

The batting list is headed by South African skipper AB de Villiers, follwed by Sri Lankan Kumar Sangakkara and SOuth Africa’s Hashim Amla.

Smith finished the tourment amassing 402 runs with one century and four half-centuries, while Guptill belted the highest World Cup individual score (237 not out) on his way to becoming the leading run-getter of the tourment with 547 runs.

Smith jumped 19 places to a career-high 12th position, while Guptill moved to the 22nd position after rising 12 places.

Veterans Michael Clarke, Brendan Taylor, Misbah-ul-Haq, Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene all bid adieu to ODI cricket.

Clarke finished his career in 29th spot (up by three places), Taylor 20th (down by four places), Misbah in 12th (up by one place), Sangakkara (second) and Jayawardene 34th (down by five places). IANS