There were a number of key contributors in New Zealand's eight-wicket win over India in the World Test Championship (WTC) final, and many of them, led by captain Kane Williamson, have made gains in the latest ICC Test player rankings. Williamson, for starters, has moved back to No. 1 among batters after his 49 and 52*, while Ross Taylor, Devon Conway, Kyle Jamieson and Trent Boult have also moved up.
Williamson's 101 runs in the low-scoring game took him past the 900-point mark and ten points clear of Steven Smith, who had taken over the perch two weeks ago. Marnus Labuschagne, Virat Kohli and Joe Root complete the top five. Taylor scored 11 in the first innings, before partnering Williamson in an unbroken third-wicket stand of 96 in the second, which took New Zealand to their target. He scored 47*, and that took him up three spots to 14th place.
Conway top-scored with 54 in New Zealand's first innings - only two half-centuries were scored in the game - and that helped him continue his steep rise, the opener moving up 18 places to No. 42.
The fast-bowling foursome of Tim Southee, Boult, Jamieson and Neil Wagner picked up all 20 Indian wickets in the game, the youngest of them, Jamieson, leading the way with a match haul of 7 for 61, which earned him the Player-of-the-Match award too. He moved up to a career-high 13th place among bowlers as a result, while Boult's 5 for 87 for the match took him up from 16th to 13th.
It wasn't such a happy time for the Indians, with only Ajinkya Rahane making a mark, his 49 and 15 helping him go from No. 16 to No. 13 among batters. Ravindra Jadeja, meanwhile, slipped back behind Jason Holder at the top of the allrounders' chart after spending a week at No. 1.
T20Is: Evin Lewis and Chris Jordan make a mark
West Indies are currently hosting South Africa in a five-match T20I series, which the visitors are leading 2-1 after three games. Only two of those games counted in the latest rankings update, and Evin Lewis, the West Indies opener who smashed 71 off just 35 balls in the opening game, has moved up from No. 13 to No. 10 among batters, while among bowlers, Fabian Allen has gone from No. 43 to No. 20.
For South Africa, Quinton de Kock was up one place to 22nd after the second game, Reeza Hendricks up three places to 24th, and Temba Bavuma went up 24 places to No. 64 after South Africa won the second game.
For England, who beat Sri Lanka 3-0 at home, bowlers Chris Jordan, Mark Wood, Sam Curran and David Willey have all progressed. Jordan has gone up five spots to No. 11, Wood 11 places to 14th, Curran 62 spots to 39th, and Willey 23 places to No. 51. For Sri Lanka, Wanindu Hasaranga has moved up five places to fifth and Dushmantha Chameera 41 places to No. 43 among bowlers.
Meanwhile, at the end of the quadrangular T20I tournament in Sofia, which Romania won by getting the better of Bulgaria, Greece and Serbia, their batter Ramesh Satheesan entered the top 100, moving up 101 spots to No. 95 after topping the batting table with 197 runs from five innings, his runs coming at a strike rate of 209.57.