BLACKCAPS bowler Shane Bond cemented his place among the world’s best by holding on to fourth place in the LG ICC ODI Rankings.
Bond now has his best-ever haul of rating points (762) after The National Bank Series triumph, with Daniel Vettori remaining in fifth.
Kyle Mills (13th) and Jacob Oram (17th) are also in the top 20.
Captain Stephen Fleming remains the BLACKCAPS top batsman in 28th place, with Nathan Astle is in 31st spot, Peter Fulton 37th and Scott Styris in equal 38th.
The team moved up one rating point as a result of their series win and are now in third place in the LG ICC ODI Championship table, ahead of India (also on 113 points) when the ratings are recalculated to three decimal points.
South Africa’s Shaun Pollock is now top of both the bowling and all-rounder rankings after impressive performances against Australia, who have five batsmen in the top 10 positions.
LG ICC ODI Championship
(after New Zealand v West Indies National Bank ODI series)
1 Australia 132
2 South Africa119
3 BLACKCAPS 113
4 India 113
5 Pakistan 112
6 England 108
7 Sri Lanka 107
8 West Indies 89
9 Zimbabwe 42
10 Bangladesh 17
* India, as hosts, will automatically qualify for the second stage of next year’s ICC Champions Trophy even if they are outside the top six of the LG ICC ODI Championship table on 1 April 2006. If they are outside that top six then the sixth-placed side in the table will take part in the preliminary round.
