New Delhi: Bangladesh continued its recent fine run of home form in ODI cricket with an inaugural home series victory over South Africa on Wednesday to make it four successive home series victories.


The 2-1 triumph helped cement its ICC Champions Trophy 2017 qualification, as well as its seventh place position in the ICC ODI Team Rankings, and it has also closed the gap on sixth-placed England to two points, while the Proteas remain in fourth place but have dropped three rankings points to 109.


Following its 3-0 series victory over Zimbabwe, India has maintained its second place ranking and still remains 14 points adrift of Australia who leads the field on 129 points.


Soumya Sarkar had a series he won’t forget in a hurry and his scores of 27, 88 not out and 90 propelled Bangladesh to victory and also vaulted the 22-year-old 35 places in the ICC Player Rankings for ODI Batsmen to a career high 15th on 671 points. Another upward mover for the hosts was Nasir Hossain who has moved up one place to 37th.

The top 10 remains unchanged which means that AB de Villiers in first position, and captain Hashim Amla in third, are the leading batsmen for South Africa. Faf du Plessis has gained one place to 17th after scoring 110 runs in the series.


In the ICC Players Rankings for ODI Bowlers, Shakib Al Hasan has moved up one place to seventh and now lies just one place, and three points, behind Australia’s Mitchell Johnson. Shakib joined his captain Mashrafe Mortaza in claiming their 200th ODI wickets in the third ODI in Chittagong and Mortaza has now moved up two places to 26th. But the biggest movers were Rubel Hossain (up 15 places to 40th), Mustafizur Rahman (up 19 to 69th), Mahmudullah (up 15 to 75th) and Nasir Hossain (up 18 to a career high 92nd).

Leg-spinner Imran Tahir has dropped three places to fifth in a disappointing series for the South Africa attack this time around, with no front line bowlers making upward progressions in the top 100.


Shakib retains his number one spot in the ICC Player Rankings for ODI All-rounders on 418 points, 17 clear of Sri Lanka’s Tillikaratne Dilshan.


Zimbabwe v India


Meanwhile, following India’s 3-0 series victory over Zimbabwe which concluded earlier this week, a number of players on both sides have made significant gains.


In the Batting ranks, Suresh Raina has moved up one place to 19th, but the biggest mover in the series was Zimbabwe’s Chamu Chibhabha whose 157 runs in the three games (including two half centuries and a top score of 82) vaulted the 28-year-old 33 places to 89th.


India medium pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar has climbed four places to 12th in the Bowling rankings after taking five wickets for 80 in the series. There were also gains for his team-mates Akshar Patel (up 18 to a career high 47th), Mohit Sharma (up seven places to 51st) and Harbhajan Singh who lies just outside the top 100 in 101st position, but has climbed a noteworthy 154 places. For Zimbabwe, Tendai Chatara (up one to 31st) and Prosper Utseya (up one to 37th), were the chief movers.


With the Sri Lanka and Pakistan series finely poised at one-all with three ODIs to go, there is expected to be further movement in the rankings table over the coming weeks.