Australia captain Ricky Ponting's twin centuries in his 100th Test reinforced his position as the world's top Test batsman in the LG ICC player rankings.

And as if that was not reason enough for him to celebrate, the 2-0 series win over South Africa by his side reinforced Australia's position as the top Test team in the updated LG ICC Test Championship.

Also see: Ponting's Perfect 100

Ponting's scores of 120 and 143 not out in Australia's eight-wicket win over the Proteas in Sydney has lifted him through the 900 point threshold in the rankings, something only ever achieved by the most outstanding cricketers of all time.

To put that into context, only Matthew Hayden among current Test batsmen has achieved a higher rating than Ponting's new mark of 922 points.

The big left-hander reached 935 points in 2002 after twin hundreds of his own, against England in Brisbane, continued a golden run of form.

Australia's series win lifted their lead at the top of the LG ICC Test Championship table to a healthy 14 points, completing a highly satisfactory home Test summer for Ponting's men.

They started the season with a lead of just eight points over England but five wins and a draw in six matches against the West Indies and South Africa, together with England's 2-0 series loss in Pakistan have dispelled fears they may have had of being overtaken.

Australia's nearest challengers are now India after their recent series win against Sri Lanka.

Ponting's scores, his 27th and 28th Test hundreds (with the first of them helping to ease him past 8000 Test runs), were needed to retain his lead in LG ICC Player Rankings because Jacques Kallis's scores of 111 and 50 not out lifted the South African back up three places to second.

Kallis, the ICC's Test Player of the Year, started the series in top spot in the batting list but, after missing the Perth Test through injury, twin failures in Melbourne dropped him to fifth place and not even a return to form in Sydney could help him regain the lead.

Hayden slips down three spots to fifth, despite 90 in Australia's successful run-chase on Friday, while there are contrasting fortunes for other batsmen on both sides in the wake of the Sydney Test.

India's Rahul Dravid, Virendra Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar occupy the sixth, seventh and ninth spots.

In the bowling department, Glenn McGrath regained the top spot from Shane Warne, who slipped to third position, also behind Sri Lanka's Muttiah Muralitharan, after a relatively modest Test in which he claimed just two of the 16 South Africa wickets to fall.

Brett Lee (21st, up two places) and Stuart MacGill (unchanged in 22nd place) are both still just outside the top 20 positions.

For South Africa, with the ball, Shaun Pollock dropped out of the top 10 in the LG ICC Player Rankings for bowlers for the first time since 1998. The former captain now lies in 11th position.

Kallis retains his position as the world's leading all-rounder in the LG ICC Rankings and Pollock remains in third with the two South Africans sandwiching England's Andrew Flintoff.

LG ICC Test Championship

After the Australia v South Africa Test series

Rank/Team                           Rating                                                                   

1 Australia                             129

2 India                                    115

3 England                              113

4 Pakistan                              103

5 New Zealand                      100

6 South Africa                      99

7 Sri Lanka                             96

8 West Indies                       73

9 Zimbabwe                           27

10 Bangladesh                        5

(Developed by David Kendix)

LG ICC Test Rankings

After the Australia v South Africa Test series

Batsmen

Rank      Player                    Team                Points                    Avge                HS Ranking

   1           ( - )                Ricky Ponting  Aus        922          57.71                922 v SA at Sydney 2006

   2           (+3)                Jacques Kallis      SA          888          57.24                896 v Eng at Cape Town 2005

   3           (-1)                Brian Lara        WI          874          53.86                911 v SA at Cape Town 2004

   4           (-1)                Inzamam-ul-Haq   Pak          870          51.61                870 v Eng at Lahore 2005

   5           (-2)                Matthew Hayden  Aus        858          54.17                935 v Eng at Brisbane 2002

   6           ( - )                Rahul Dravid    Ind          836          57.16                892 v Pak at Kolkata 2005

   7           ( - )                Virender Sehwag  Ind          786          53.54                854 v SA at Kolkata 2004

   8           ( - )                M.E.Trescothick Eng         768          45.47                818 v Pak at Multan 2005

   9           ( - )                S.R.Tendulkar     Ind          740          56.71                898 v Zim at Nagpur 2002

  10          ( - )                Moh'd Yousuf   Pak          736          48.56                758 v WI at Sharjah 2002

  11          ( - )                Younis Khan      Pak          713          43.72                757 v Ind at Bangalore 2005

  12          ( - )                S.Chanderpaul     WI          711          45.94                811 v SL at Colombo (SSC) 2005

  13          (+1)                M.Jayawardene    SL           699          47.80                836 v Eng at Birmingham 2002

  14          (+4)                H.H.Gibbs            SA          692          46.82                825 v WI at Centurion 2004

  15          (+1)                Andrew Strauss   Eng         690          46.31                769 v SA at Johannesburg 2005

  16          (+4)                Adam Gilchrist Aus        687          50.18                874 v SA at Cape Town 2002

  17          (-4)                Justin Langer    Aus        686          45.72                780 v SA at Sydney 2002

  18          (-1)                Damien Martyn   Aus        676          47.96                848 v NZ at Wellington 2005

  19          (-4)                Graeme Smith      SA          674          51.54                756 v NZ at Wellington 2004

  20          (-1)                K.C.Sangakkara  SL           668          46.60                813 v Pak at Lahore 2002 

Bowlers

Rank                (Change)               Player                Team                Points                    Avge                HS Ranking

   1           (+1)                Glenn McGrath                Aus        853                          21.55       914 v Eng at The Oval 2001

   2           (+1)                M.Muralidaran     SL           845                          22.47       915 v Pak at Lahore 2002

   3           (-2)                Shane Warne    Aus        842                          25.15       905 v Eng at Melbourne 1994

   4           ( - )                Shoaib Akhtar    Pak          798                          24.75       855 v NZ at Wellington 2003

   5           (+2)                Andrew Flintoff   Eng         781                          31.51       810 v Pak at Multan 2005

   6           (-1)                Makhaya Ntini    SA          778                          29.22       807 v WI at Port-of-Spain 2005

   7           (+1)                Chaminda Vaas    SL           775                          28.81       800 v Ind at Chennai 2005

   8           (+1)                Anil Kumble  Ind          774                          28.10       859 v SL at Bangalore 1994

   9           (+1)                Andre Nel          SA          763          *              26.22       763 v Aus at Sydney 2006

  10          (+1)                Irfan Pathan    Ind          756          *              26.13       761 v SL at Delhi 2005

  11          (-5)                Shaun Pollock   SA          742                          22.76       909 v Eng at Johannesburg 1999

  12          ( - )                Matt'w Hoggard                Eng         730                          30.07       762 v Aus at The Oval 2005

  13          ( - )                Danish Kaneria  Pak          713                          30.55       723 v Eng at Multan 2005

  14          ( - )                Harbhajan Singh  Ind          699                          28.08       765 v NZ at Wellington 2002

  15          ( - )                Shane Bond      NZ          696          *              20.80       696 v Zim at Bulawayo 2005

  16          ( - )                Steve Harmison                Eng         679                          28.72       875 v WI at The Oval 2004

  17          ( - )                Shabbir Ahmed   Pak          634          *              23.03       647 v Eng at Multan 2005

  18          (+1)                Simon Jones      Eng         606          *              28.22       631 v Aus at Nottingham 2005

  19          (-1)                Jason Gillespie Aus        604                          26.61       812 v NZ at Adelaide 2004

  20          ( - )                Corey Collymore                WI          600          *              31.36       600 v Aus at Adelaide 2005

All-rounders

Rank      Player                    Team                Points

1              Kallis                     SA                496

2              Flintoff                   Eng                454

3              Pollock                  SA                340

4              Pathan                    Ind                302*

5              Vettori                    NZ                279

* denotes provisional ranking.