South Africa’s batsmen have climbed in the ICC Test rankings after beating Sri Lanka in the Boxing Day Test at Centurion.
The Proteas batted just once in the match, carding a massive 621 to go on and win by an innings and 45 runs.
Faf du Plessis was named man of the match for his career-best innings of 199 while there were also valuable contributions from Dean Elgar (95), Temba Bavuma (71) and Aiden Markram (68).
In the latest ICC rankings released on Thursday, all four of those players moved up.
Du Plessis was the biggest mover, climbing 14 places from 35th to now sit 21st.
Elgar moved from 24th to 20th, Markram from 27th to 24th and Bavuma is up from 63rd to 57th.
Skipper Quinton de Kock, meanwhile, remains South Africa’s highest-ranked batsman in the format at 13th.
New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson, meanwhile, has overtaken Australia’s Steve Smith and India captain Virat Kohli to be the number one Test batsman in the world.
Williamson leaped from third to first after he led the Black Caps to a 101-run victory over Pakistan this week, scoring 129 in the first innings and a rapid 21 in the second when New Zealand were building a lead before declaring.
ICC Test batting rankings:
1. Kane Williamson (NZ) – 890
2. Virat Kohli (Ind) – 879
3. Steve Smith (Aus) – 877
4. Marnus Labuschagne (Aus) – 850
5. Babar Azam (Pak) – 789
6. Ajinkya Rahane (Ind) – 784
7. David Warner (Aus) – 777
8. Ben Stokes (Eng) – 750
9. Joe Root (Eng) – 738
10. Cheteshwar Pujara (Ind) – 728
13. Quinton de Kock (SA) – 692
20. Dean Elgar (SA) – 639
21. Faf du Plessis (SA) – 638
24. Aiden Markram (SA) – 621
57. Temba Bavuma (SA) – 499
South Africa’s batsmen have climbed in the ICC Test rankings after beating Sri Lanka in the Boxing Day Test at Centurion.
