World Cup hero Starc tops cricket bowlers' rankings

Melbourne, March 31 (IANS) Australian pacer Mitchell Starc has surged to the top of the One-Day International (ODI) bowlers' rankings for the first time in his career following a stellar performance in the World Cup that saw him named the "Player of the Tournament".

Starc jumped two places to take the top spot. He gained 147 ratings points during the course of the tournament to reach an overall 783 rating points.

South African leg spinner Imran Tahir occupied the second spot after moving three slots with 7334 ratings points.

New Zealand pacer Trent Boult who was the joint highest wicket taker in the World Cup alongside Star with 22 scalps, moved up nine places to jump to a career-high sixth position.

He shares the position with with Australia's left-arm apeedster Mitchell Johnson, who has also moved up by two places.

In the ODI batsmen rankings, South Africa skipper AB de Villiers, who continued to lead the batting rankings, has become the 11th batsman overall, and second South African after Hashim Amla, to break the 900 ratings point mark.

De Villiers achieved the milestone during the semi-final against New Zealand when he scored 65 not out.

He is now eighth on the list behind Vivian Richards (935), Zaheer Abbas (931), Greg Chappell (921), David Gower (919), Dean Jones (918), Javed Miandad (910), Brian Lara (908) and Desmond Haynes (900) to boast of 900 ratings points in the rankings.

Sri Lankan Tillakaratne Dilshan has retained the top spot in the all-rounders' rankings, followed by Shakib Al Hasan of Bangladesh. South African Jean Paul Duminy moved up four places to the ninth spot.

Pakistan's Shahid Afridi has signed off his ODI career as the sixth ranked all-rounder. In the batting chart, he was 44th while 30th in the bowling table.