BLACKCAPS bowler Kyle Mills has taken the world number one ODI bowling ranking after his outstanding performance at the ICC Champions Trophy in South Africa.
Mills, who started the elite eight-team tournament in number-two position trailing Sri Lanka’s Nuwan Kulasekara by seven points, now leads his Sri Lanka counterpart by 10 points. They are the only two bowlers in the 700-point mark, which in ranking terms marks out a player as truly great.
Mills has been in the top 10 since December 2007 and finished as the third leading wicket-taker in the tournament with nine wickets to play a leading role in New Zealand’s progress to the final where it lost to Australia by six wickets.
The BLACKCAPS now hold three of the top five bowling places with Daniel Vettori third and Shane Bond fifth.
The BLACKCAPS success in reaching the final of the tournament has also helped to propel them to fourth place in the world team ODI rankings - a jump of three places.
