
It was India one-two in the ICC ODI Rankings as dashing left-hander Yuvraj Singh zoomed to a career best second place, topped by his captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni.
Despite winning the four-match series against the West Indies, there was, however, no such good news for India as Dhoni's men missed a chance to reclaim the second spot in the ICC ODI Championship and remained third.
India needed to win all their matches against the West Indies but they went down in the second tie at Sabina Park even though it could not deny them a 2-1 series win in the Caribbean.
Yuvraj made scores of 131, 35 and 2 in the three matches against the West Indies while the fourth ODI in St Lucia was washed out on Sunday. His series contribution helped him jump two places and he now sits behind Dhoni who has consolidated his number one position.
Dhoni, whose place was under threat from Chris Gayle, Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Yuvraj, produced a consistent performance to strengthen his position at the top.
The wicketkeeper-batsman made scores of 41, 95 and 46 not out to walk away with the player of the series award. Dhoni now leads Yuvraj by a comfortable 44-point margin.
The team-mates are likely to resume their battle for the top spot in September when India plays Sri Lanka and New Zealand in a proposed tri-series in Sri Lanka.
Yuvraj's leap by two places means Chanderpaul and Gayle have dropped one place each to the third and fourth places respectively.
... contd.