The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : Lara, Muralitharan still on top

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, May 20, 2004

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Sport - Cricket

Lara, Muralitharan still on top

LONDON, MAY 19. The heroics of Sri Lankan skipper Marvan Atapattu and Kumara Sangakkara against Zimbabwe had hardly any impact on the latest PricewaterhouseCoopers Test cricket ratings with the top 10 batting positions remaining unaltered.

Brian Lara continued to maintain his top batting spot followed by Rahul Dravid and Matthew Hayden respectively.

The two Sri Lankans scored double centuries in the second Test against a depleted Zimbabwean team at Bulawayo last week, but could not get into the top-10 bracket. Sangakkara jumped seven places to 24, while Atapattu climbed to 28th from 32nd.

Other Indians among the top 10 batsmen in the world include Sachin Tendulkar at eighth and Virender Sehwag at ninth.

Among the bowlers, world's highest wicket-taker Sri Lankan spinner Muttiah Muralitharan led with 904 points, while South African pacer Shaun Pollock was a distant second at 837 points and Pakistan speedster Shoaib Akhtar third with 826.

Anil Kumble, ranked seventh, is the only Indian among the top bowlers, while Harbhajan Singh and Zaheer Khan are 13th and 20th respectively.

Shane Warne, who would look forward to clinching the world's highest Test wicket-taker tag from Muralitharan in the upcoming Zimbabwe series, is a distant fifth. — PTI

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