India retain number one spot of ICC test rankings

On Thursday at kolkata, India's victory against South Africa by an innings and 57 runs in the final cricket Test retain their status as the number one Test team.

India needed to pick up the remaining seven wickets to draw the series 1-1, were made to wait till the very fag end of a dramatic fifth day's play for their moment of glory with Hashim Amla nearly carrying the proteas to safety with a defiant unbeaten 123.

Resuming at 115 for three after conceding a mammoth 347-run first innings lead, the South Africans were all out for 290 with just 15 minutes remaining on a nail-biting last day.

Spinners Harbhajan Singh (5/59) and Amit Mishra (3/84) were the wreckers-in-chief as they ripped through the South African middle order but it was the stout resistance from Amla and the tailenders which delayed the victory.

Harbhajan claimed the last wicket of Mornie Morkel, trapping him leg before wicket, to mark India's victory and send the vociferous Eden crowd into a frenzy.

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Gambhir still top in ICC test batsmen rankings

Indian opener Gautam Gambhir, who scored just 13 in the first Test in Nagpur against South Africa, remained world's top batsman with 840 points, ahead of Sri Lankan duo of Mahela Jayawardene (836) and Kumar Sangakkara (835).

Off-spinner Harbhajan Singh dropped out of top 10 among bowlers in the ICC chart released on Wednesday.

Virender Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar, who both scored centuries in Nagpur, are the other Indians to feature in the top 10 at sixth and ninth places respectively.

Amla, meanwhile, broke into the top 10 for the first time in his career with the help of his magnificent unbeaten 253 in the first innings.

In the ICC Players' Rankings for Test bowlers, India's pace spearhead Zaheer Khan is static at the sixth spot while Harbhajan, who took two wickets for 166 in Nagpur, dropped four places to find himself at 12th.

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