South Africa quick surges up rankings after T20 World Cup heroics

South Africa fast bowler Anrich Nortje blasted up the ICC Men’s T20I Bowling Rankings after his stunning display against Sri Lanka in the first week of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024.
Nortje returned remarkable figures of 4/7 from his four overs as South Africa hammered Sri Lanka by six wickets in New York, setting a new record for the best figures by a Proteas bowler in the Men’s T20 World Cups.
The previous record was also with Nortje, he picked 4/10 against Bangladesh in 2022 in Sydney.
Nortje produced a career-best performance in T20Is to help bowl Sri Lanka out for 77 and won the Player of the Match award.
The 30-year-old’s superb performance has seen him leap up nine places in the Men’s T20I Bowling Rankings, bursting into the top 10 and up to eighth.
Nortje is now the second-highest pace bowler in the rankings, behind Australia’s Josh Hazlewood (in fifth). England’s Adil Rashid remains in top spot, with Wanindu Hasaranga and Axar Patel rounding off the top three.
Afghanistan’s Fazalhaq Farooqi also moves up to 10th in the Bowing Rankings thanks to his superb returns of 5/9 against Uganda at the Providence Stadium in Guyana, with Tabraiz Shamsi and Reece Topley both dropping out of the top 10. The two Afghanistan opening batters were the other notable movers in the latest update to the ICC Men’s T20I Batting Rankings.
Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Ibrahim Zadran put on an 154-run opening partnership in their big victory over Uganda at the T20 World Cup this week, and have each jumped four places in the format’s rankings as a result.
The 20-year-old Gurbaz moves into the top 20, with Zadran four spots behind in 24th.
The top 10 remains unchanged with Suryakumar Yadav, the top-ranked batter in the format, joined by England’s Phil Salt and Pakistan’s Mohamed Rizwan in the top three.
Meanwhile, Shakib Al Hasan is the beneficiary of an unusually disappointing outing for Sri Lanka’s Hasaranga against South Africa on Monday, with the Bangladesh all-rounder leapfrogging Hasaranga into the top spot in the All-Rounder Rankings.