Clarke on top in ICC rankings with career-best points

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In the form of his life, Australian cricket captain Michael Clarke today reached a career-best 900 points to retain the top spot in the ICC Test Rankings for batsmen after his side’s innings and 201 runs win against Sri Lanka in Melbourne.

The win guaranteed Australia an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match series.

Clarke began the Test on 888 ratings points and earned 12 ratings points for his knock of 106 to become only the seventh Australian batsman to achieve the rare distinction as he retained his position at the top of the batting table.

Don Bradman, Ricky Ponting, Matthew Hayden, Doug Walters, Neil Harvey and Mike Hussey are the other Australian batsmen to break the 900-point barrier.

Clarke has enjoyed a record-breaking year with the bat in Test matches and he has ended 2012 as the highest run-getter with 1595 runs from 11 matches. Clarke also broke former captain Ricky Ponting’s record of most Test runs by an Australia batsman in a year.

Clarke’s hundred in the Melbourne Test was his fifth for the year to add to his triple hundred and three double hundreds during the course of 2012. At 900 ratings points, Clarke is now 26th in the all-time batting ratings list.

Mitchell Johnson, player of the match in Melbourne, has also made an all-round impact in the latest rankings. Johnson’s match figures of four for 63 and two for 16 has put him back among the top 20 bowlers’ list. He is now 18th after a jump of three places.

In addition to that Johnson’s unbeaten knock of 92 has seen him climb 13 places to 81st in the batting table. The combined bowling and batting efforts has put him back in the top 10 of the all-rounders’ table at 10th (up by four places).

Kumar Sangakkara, who became the second Sri Lankan batsman, and the 11th overall, to reach the 10,000-Test run mark has moved up a place to fourth in the batting table.

The bowlers’ table is still headed by South Africa’s Dale Steyn. Jacques Kallis continues to head the all-rounders’ table, followed by Bangladesh’s Shakib Al Hasan in the second place.