De Villiers and Clarke become number-one ranked Test batsmen

South Africa's AB de Villiers has reached the number-one batting position for the first time in his career where he has been joined by Australia captain Michael Clarke in the latest Reliance ICC Player Rankings which were released on Friday.

De Villiers' move to the top of the batting chart is due to a combination of his own good performances in the Hamilton and Wellington Tests, as well as Kumar Sangakkara's disappointing show with the bat against England in the Galle Test.

De Villiers scored 83 in South Africa's nine wickets victory over New Zealand in the Hamilton Test and then followed up with 38 and 68 in the drawn Wellington Test. These performances have helped him earn 35 ratings points which have given him a career-best rating of 821 and a lift of two places.

Sangakkara, who had entered the Galle Test as the number-one ranked Test batsman, scored nought and 14 in Sri Lanka's 75 runs victory over England. This meant the former Sri Lanka captain has dropped from 850 ratings points to 813 ratings point which cost him three places in the batting table.

Sangakkara is now ranked fourth but can regain the number-one spot if he performs strongly in the Colombo Test which starts next week as he trails the two number one-ranked batsmen by only eight ratings points.

Jacques Kallis, AB de Villiers' team-mate, has also slipped one position to third after managing just six runs in his only innings in Hamilton and then missing the Wellington Test.

So the fall of Kallis and Sangakkara has helped Michael Clarke regain the number-one position -a week before he leads his side in the three-Test series against the West Indies. It is the second time Clarke has headed the batting table after he first topped the batting list in August 2009 after he scored 93 against England in Australia's victory by an innings and 80 runs in the Leeds Test.

Apart from a reshuffle at the top of the order, South Africa's Hashim Amla has moved up two places to eighth after scores of 16 and 46 in Hamilton and 63 in Wellington, England's Jonathan Trott has jumped six places to ninth after scoring 12 and 112 in Galle, New Zealand captain Ross Taylor has gained three places and is now in 10th position after scoring 44 and 17 in Hamilton and 18 in Wellington while Sri Lanka captain Mahela Jayawardena has lifted seven places to 19th spot after scoring 180 and five in Galle.

Other batsmen losing ground include South Africa captain Graeme Smith in 12th (down by two), Alastair Cook in 14th (down by nine), Kevin Pietersen in 22nd (down by two), Matt Prior in 24th (down by two) and Brendon McCullum in 25th (down by one).

In the Reliance ICC Player Rankings for Test bowlers, South Africa's Vernon Philander has continued to climb up the chart. The fast bowler had figures of four for 70 and six for 44 in Hamilton and six for 81 and none for 29 in Wellington.

Philander has gained 148 ratings points which has not only given him a career-best rating of 764 but also led to a jump of 11 places which puts him in a career-best fifth position.

He is the third South Africa bowler inside the top 10 with Dale Steyn firmly holding the number-one position and Morne Morkel in 10th spot after slipping one place.

Sri Lanka's Rangana Herath is the other bowler to earn a career-best rating and ranking. The left-arm spinner took six for 74 and six for 97 for which he earned 92 ratings points which has put him on 752 ratings points and a seventh position in the bowling charts after a rise of six places.

In the Reliance ICC Player Rankings for Test all-rounders, Bangladesh's Shakib Al Hasan is in number-one position but New Zealand's Daniel Vettori has slipped two places to fifth spot which has put England's Stuart Broad and Australia's Shane Watson one place up in third and fourth spots, respectively.

Meanwhile, England finds itself in a must-win situation in the Colombo Test if it has to retain its number-one position on the Reliance ICC Test Championship table. England's victory will keep it ahead of South Africa by a fraction of a point but its failure to win the Test will make South Africa as the new number-one ranked side.

If England loses the series 2-0, it will drop from 118 ratings points to 113 ratings points - three points behind South Africa - while a 1-0 defeat will mean it will slip to 114 ratings points.

Australia will also be eyeing to gain, at least, one place on the Test Championship table when it takes on the West Indies in the three-Test series in Bridgetown on 7 April.

While a series win will put it ahead of India in third position, a 3-0 series win will put Australia on equal points with England on 113 ratings points (if England loses 2-0 to Sri Lanka). And when the ratings are calculated beyond the decimal point, then Australia will be placed above England in second position as it will have a rating of 113.10 against England's rating of 113.045.

The Test Championship table as well as the player rankings will now be updated at the conclusion of the Colombo Test.

West Indies v Australia series schedule

7-11 April - 1st Test, Bridgetown

15-19 April - 2nd Test, Port of Spain

23-27 April - Third Test, Roseau, Dominica

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Strauss flummoxed by England's run of defeats

Captain Andrew Strauss was at a loss to explain what had gone wrong for his England team after they were beaten for the fourth test in a row on Thursday.

Sri Lanka's 75-run victory in the first test in Galle means England could lose their place at the top of the world rankings if they suffer a 2-0 whitewash in the series.

"You need to be a rocket scientist to work out where things have gone wrong," Strauss told reporters after his side were bowled out for 264 on the fourth day.

"We haven't put scores on the board and we are not going to win too many test matches if that's the case.

"I thought we showed in the second innings, technically and game-plan wise, there's a lot of skill in our dressing room against spin bowling.

"We just didn't apply ourselves in the right manner in the first innings," added Strauss, referring to their meagre total of 193.

England struggled to cope with spin when they lost 3-0 to Pakistan in their most recent series in the Gulf and the visitors were undone by the turning ball again in Galle as slow left-armer Rangana Herath picked up 12 wickets in the match.

NO EXCUSE

"In the fourth innings you can understand the odd ball spitting and you'll get the odd dismissal but the first innings was no excuse and that is what is most frustrating," said Strauss who is himself desperately out of form with the bat.

The skipper singled out second-innings centurion Jonathan Trott (112) for praise.

"Everyone has got different game plans," said Strauss. "There's always a balance between attack and defence in test cricket and Jonathan was a good example of that.

"He put the bad balls away and a lot of the time he was patient enough to wait for that bad ball.

"A lot of the guys have got great pedigree with the bat and they will get another opportunity to prove it in next week's second test in Colombo."

Sri Lanka captain Mahela Jayawardene was delighted with his team's win.

"It's a good challenge for us to go up against the world's number one team," said Jayawardene.

"We knew we would have to work really hard to get a result against them and the series will give us an idea where we are right now and where we need to improve.

"This is a good start for us, we just need to try and maintain it. The English batting lineup is top class and they were going to come hard at us," added Jayawardene.

"They had a few partnerships and we had to wait patiently. Once we got the new ball we knew we would create more opportunities and that's what we did.

"There were also a couple of really good catches to turn things around for us."

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