Australia fast bowler Brett Lee [Images] has climbed to first position in the LG ICC [Images] ODI bowling rankings with the highest rating of his career, while Adam Gilchrist [Images] has replaced Ricky Ponting [Images] at the top of the batting table.

Lee's success in the VB Series -- he is the leading wicket-taker with 15 wickets at 19.40 -- has seen him accumulate enough ranking points to overtake Glenn McGrath in the bowling standings and hold off a challenge from Shaun Pollock [Images], who was the most economical bowler in the tri-series and has climbed to second position.

Gilchrist, meanwhile, has reclaimed the top batting spot after plundering 284 runs at a strike rate of 108.39. He is one of five Australian batsmen now in the top 10 along with Ponting (2^nd), Andrew Symonds [Images] (7^th), Mike Hussey (8^th) and Michael Clarke [Images] (9^th).

Hussey is the newest member of this quintet, joining the top echelons of the table after only 29 ODIs. He scored 259 runs in this series at an average of 64.75 to move up the list by 18 places.

It is a tremendous week for Hussey in which he was also named Australia's ODI player of the year.

Going into the final, Australia remain top of the LG ICC ODI Championship table while Sri Lanka [Images] are seventh. This is the same position that Sri Lanka occupied coming into the series but they have improved their rating by a point and success in the finals would see them climb to fifth.  

Defeat in the final, however, will see Sri Lanka face the very real prospect of having to play in the preliminary round of this year's ICC Champions Trophy in India as if they are still seventh on April 1* then they will have to play in the preliminary round for the right to take part in the next round of the tournament.

In the finals Sri Lanka will be looking for important contributions with the bat from the rejuvenated Sanath Jayasuriya [Images] whose 262 runs have lifted him back into the top 20 (14^th) and Kumar Sangakkara, up four places to 4^th.

South Africa's series ended in disappointment and they have slipped to third in the LG ICC ODI Championship table. Captain Graeme Smith [Images] has retained third spot in the batting rankings despite his poor run of form but he is one of only two South Africans in the top twenty.

Boeta Dippenaar has climbed 15 places over the course of the series to 16^th but Herschelle Gibbs [Images] has slipped five places to 22^nd and Jacques Kallis [Images] is down 11 to 24^th.

The updated rankings also include the first match of Pakistan's home series against India. Salman Butt's [Images] century lifted him into the top 50 (up 7 places to 47^th) for the first time while Irfan Pathan's [Images] batting display boosted him into the top five ODI all-rounders.

Full details of the current LG ICC ODI Championship and how future results will impact on the table, as well as the LG ICC Player Rankings can be found at:

http://www.icc-cricket.com/rankings/lg.html

* India, as hosts, will automatically qualify for the second stage of next year's ICC Champions Trophy even if they are outside the top six of the LG ICC ODI Championship table on 1 April 2006.  If they are outside that top six then the sixth-placed side in the table will take part in the preliminary round.

LG ICC Player Rankings after group matches in Australian triangular series

Batsmen

Rank	Change	Player	Team	Rating	Career Best
1	+1	Adam Gilchrist	AUS	797	820 vs Sri Lanka, Dambulla 2004
2	-1	Ricky Ponting	AUS	784	803 vs South Africa, Sydney 2002
3		Graeme Smith	SA	729	784 vs India, Kolkata 2005
4	+4	Kumar Sangakkara	SL	721	733 vs Australia, Sydney 2006
5		Mohammad Yousuf [Images]	PAK	718	777 vs South Africa, Rawalpindi 2003
5	+1	Chris Gayle	WI	718	804 vs Zimbabwe, Harare 2003
7	-3	Andrew Symonds	AUS	717	740 vs Sri Lanka, Melbourne 2006
8	+18	Mike Hussey	AUS	712	712 vs South Africa, Sydney 2006
9		Michael Clarke	AUS	702	734 vs England, Bristol 2005
10	-3	Inzamam-ul-Haq [Images]	PAK	701	801 vs New Zealand, Wellington 1995
11		Marvan Atapattu	SL	696	739 vs Zimbabwe, East London [Images] 2003
11	-1	Rahul Dravid [Images]	IND	696	728 vs West Indies, Dambulla 2005
11	+1	Andrew Flintoff [Images]	ENG	696	749 vs Sri Lanka, The Rose Bowl 2004
14	+11	Sanath Jayasuriya	SL	693	838 vs Bangladesh, Pietermaritzburg 2003
14		Kevin Pietersen [Images]	ENG	693	704 vs Pakistan, Lahore [Images] 2005
16	+15	Boeta Dippenaar	SA	691	718 vs Sri Lanka, Perth 2006
17	+4	Mahendra Dhoni [Images]	IND	689	689 vs Pakistan, Peshawar 2006
18	-3	Ramnaresh Sarwan [Images]	WI	688	765 vs South Africa, Kingston [Images] 2005
19		Damien Martyn	AUS	684	696 vs England, Adelaide 2003
19	-3	Marcus Trescothick [Images]	ENG	684	798 vs South Africa, The Oval 2003
21	-1	Sachin Tendulkar [Images]	IND	682	887 vs Zimbabwe, Sharjah 1998

Bowlers

Rank	Change	Player	Team	Rating	Career Best
1	+1	Brett Lee	AUS	846	853 vs South Africa, Melbourne 2006
2	+1	Shaun Pollock	SA	838	903 vs West Indies, Centurion 2004
3	-2	Glenn McGrath	AUS	799	903 vs South Africa, Bloemfontein 2002
4	+1	Naved-ul-Hasan	PAK	743	743 vs India, Peshawar 2006
5	-1	Muttiah Muralitharan	SL	737	913 vs New Zealand, Sharjah 2002
6		Chaminda Vaas [Images]	SL	716	861 vs South Africa, Colombo (RPS) 2004
7		Daniel Vettori [Images]	NZ	709	745 vs Sri Lanka, Queenstown 2005
8	+2	Shane Bond [Images]	NZ	692	711 vs Pakistan, Dambulla 2003
9	-1	Irfan Pathan	IND	688	701 vs Zimbabwe, Harare 2005
10	+1	Harbhajan Singh [Images]	IND	681	735 vs West Indies, Bridgetown 2002
11	+1	Steve Harmison	ENG	676	728 vs Australia, Leeds 2005
12	-3	Makhaya Ntini [Images]	SA	669	782 vs West Indies, Cape Town 2004
13	+1	Andrew Flintoff	ENG	650	755 vs Bangladesh, Dhaka 2003
14	+1	Kyle Mills	NZ	645	651 vs Sri Lanka, Christchurch 2006
15	-2	Jason Gillespie	AUS	635	823 vs Pakistan, Lord's 2004
16	+1	Jacob Oram [Images]	NZ	634	766 vs Australia, The Oval 2004
17	+4	Bradley Hogg	AUS	619	651 vs Pakistan, Hobart 2005
18	+18	Andrew Hall [Images]	SA	613	618 vs Sri Lanka, Adelaide 2006
19	-3	Andre Nel [Images]	SA	612	637 vs India, Mumbai 2005
20	-2	Darren Gough	ENG	611	767 vs South Africa, Johannesburg 2000
20	-2	Ian Bradshaw	WI	611	631 vs Pakistan, Kingstown 2005
22	-1	Ajit Agarkar [Images]	IND	608	640 vs Sri Lanka, Pune 1999

All-rounders

Rank	Change	Player	Team	Points	Highest Ranking
1	-	Andrew Flintoff	Eng	452	544 v SL at The Rose Bowl 2004
2	-	Shaun Pollock	SA	414	457 v Pak at Cape Town 1998
3	-1	Andrew Symonds	Aus	384	392 v NZ at Wellington 2005
4	-	Shoaib Malik [Images]	Pak	365	403 v WI at Brisbane 2005
5	+1	Irfan Pathan	Ind	350	350 v Pak at Peshawar 2006