STEYN ON TOP OF THE WORLD

Just before the Proteas boarded Johannesburg-Chennai flight last month, former South African skipper Kepler Wessels picked his man for the tour: "Look out for Dale (Steyn). He will surely make a huge impact", he said. After India's 1st innings in the 1st Test (especially, after watching Mr Sehwag sending the tourists on a leatherhunt), Wessels, in India as a commentator, looked a disappointed man. But, despite the unbearable heat and humidity at Chepauk, Steyn was in no mood to throw in the towel so early, so meekly. He gave the Indians a taste of the things to come with an inspired spell which saw him hitting the timber more than once in the second innings.
What the 24-year-old did in the next Test match at Ahmedabad will be something he'll proudly narrate to his grand children a few decades down the line. With 117 wickets from just 41 innings (at an average of 21.41), Steyn has quite deservedly joined Muttiah Muralitharan on top of the ICC bowlers' rankings.
Meanwhile, Australia's Michael Hussey has grabbed the top position from Sri Lanka's Kumar Sangakkara in the ICC Player Rankings for Test batsmen. There's some positive news for the Indians as well. Irfan Pathan has moved into the top five in the ICC Test all-rounders' rankings. Well, if only you would've performed as well in the bowling department as well, Mr Pathan!

ICC Test Championship (as of 7 April)

Rank-Teams-Rating

1 Australia 141
2 India 111
3 South Africa 109
4 England 108
5 Sri Lanka 106
6 Pakistan 94
7 New Zealand 91
8 West Indies 77
9 Bangladesh 1

ICC Test Rankings (as of 7 April)

Batsmen

Rank-Player

1 Mike Hussey
2= Ricky Ponting
Jacques Kallis
4 K.C.Sangakkara
5 Mohd Yousuf
6 Matthew Hayden
7= S.Chanderpaul
M.Jayawardena
9 Younis Khan
10 Kevin Pietersen

Bowlers

Rank-Player-Points
1= M।Muralidaran 897

Dale Steyn 897
3 Stuart Clark 829
4 Brett Lee 795
5 Makhaya Ntini 789
6 Anil Kumble 715
7 Chaminda Vaas 709
8 Shane Bond 688
9 Shoaib Akhtar 684
10 Ryan Sidebottom 665

All-rounders

Rank-Player-Points

1 Jacques Kallis 517
2 Daniel Vettori 340
3 Andrew Flintoff 320
4 Chaminda Vaas 294
5 Irfan Pathan 268