Amla and Clarke continue fight for No.1 Test batting spot

Saturday, 2 March 2013 00:01 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

South African batsman Hashim Amla and Australian Captain Michael Clarke have continued their dogfight for the number-one batting position on the Reliance ICC Test Player Rankings for batsmen.

Both the batsmen excelled in the Centurion and Chennai Tests, which meant both they gained ratings points and as such retained their pre-Test rankings.

Amla has earned eight ratings points following his knock of 92 against Pakistan and became only the 27 batsman in the history of the game to break the 900-rating points barrier, a benchmark for the top batsmen.

Amla, who has been short-listed twice for the ICC Cricketer of the year award, is the fourth South African to achieve this rare feat after Jacques Kallis, Graeme Pollock and Dudley Nourse. The 29-year-old from Durban, who will celebrate his 30 birthday next month, is now at a career-best 903 ratings points and in 25th position on the all-time batting ratings list.

Clarke, who was the 26th batsman to break the 900-point mark after the Boxing Day Test against Sri Lanka, scored 131 and 30 in the Chennai Test against India. For this effort, he received five ratings points, which, in turns means the gap between the top two batsmen in the world opened from six to 11 ratings points.

However, Amla has no more tests before October while Clarke has three more against India to reclaim the number-one batting rank he surrendered to the South African on 4 February after the Cape Town Test.

The latest rankings were released on Tuesday after India’s eight-wicket win over Australia in Chennai and South Africa’s innings and 18 runs win over Pakistan at Centurion.

There has been some reshuffle in the batting table following the Centurion and Chennai Tests.

South Africa’s AB de Villiers has moved up a place to third, India’s Sachin Tendulkar has jumped three places to 17th spot, India Captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni has charged up 15 places to 21, Virat Kohli of India has gained 10 places and is now on a career-best 25th position.