Brian Lara, whose batting almost single-handedly won the second Test match for the West Indies against Australia, has returned to number one in the PricewaterhouseCoopers Ratings - a position he has not held since 1995.

The computer rated this as Lara's finest Test innings, higher even than his 375. This is because it was made against a very highly rated bowling attack, in a match where others struggled to make runs, and resulted in a victory for his team.

Jimmy Adams also moved up, by 14 places to 27th.

In the bowling, McGrath moved up another eight points, but remains second because in New Zealand Allan Donald also climbed to reach a career best 895 points. Courtney Walsh moved up two places to ninth, overtaking MacGill who slipped two places to tenth. Meanwhile Pakistan's Wasim Akram, who this week celebrated his second hat-trick, reached his highest Rating for twelve months.

In New Zealand, Jacques Kallis - South Africa's run machine of late entered the top ten of the PwC Ratings for the first time.

PricewaterhouseCoopers
World Ratings of Test cricketers

Batsmen 17 March 1999 (changes since 10 March)

Rank Change Player             Ctry  PointCareer  Highest rating of career (showing
                                         Average points player had after match)
   1 (+4)  Brian Lara        WI      881  50.87  898 v Eng at The Oval 1995
   2 (-1)  Steve Waugh       Aus     853   49.9  909 v WI at Melbourne 1996
   3 (-1)  Sachin Tendulkar  Ind     811  54.49  870 v Pak at Madras 1999
   4 ( - ) Rahul Dravid      Ind     796  54.43  862 v NZ at Hamilton 1999
   5 (-2)  Saeed Anwar       Pak     793  46.02  835 v Ind at Calcutta 1999
   6 ( - ) Alec Stewart      Eng     768  41.15  783 v SA at Trent Bridge 1998
   7 ( - ) Mark Waugh        Aus     756  43.52  803 v SA at Port Elizabeth 1997
   8 ( - ) Nasser Hussain    Eng     723  37.53  723 v Aus at Sydney 1999
   9 (+1)  Aravinda de Silva Sri     712  42.86  764 v SA at Cape Town 1998
  10 (+6)  Jacques Kallis    SA      700  40.05  700 v NZ at Christchurch 1999
  11 (-2)  Michael Slater    Aus     688  45.25  768 v Sri at Melbourne 1995
  12 (-1)  Daryll Cullinan   SA      684  41.63  736 v Ind at Johannesburg 1997
12=  (-1)  Murray Goodwin    Zim     684   53.6  698 v Pak at Peshawar 1998
  14 (-1)  Hansie Cronje     SA      681  38.12  752 v Eng at Trent Bridge 1998
  15 (-1)  Saurav Ganguly    Ind     675  49.68  706 v Pak at Delhi 1999
  16 ( - ) Gary Kirsten      SA      662  40.28  766 v Ind at Calcutta 1996
     (-1)  S.Chanderpaul     WI      662  42.05  746 v Ind at Georgetown 1997
  18 ( - ) Andy Flower       Zim     650  43.54  650 v Pak at Lahore 1998
  19 (+9)  Ijaz Ahmed, sen.  Pak     647  39.77  695 v Eng at The Oval 1996
  20 (+12) Inzamam-ul-Haq    Pak     644  43.21  865 v Eng at Lord's 1996
  21 (-2)  Sanath Jayasuriya Sri     642  45.82  750 v Ind at Colombo 1997
  22 (-2)  Graham Thorpe     Eng     638  40.13  803 v WI at Kingston 1998
  23 (-1)  M.Azharuddin      Ind     633  44.88  723 v Eng at The Oval 1990
  24 (-4)  Carl Hooper       WI      631  34.14  705 v SA at Johannesburg 1998
  25 (-3)  Craig McMillan    NZ      627  48.94  633 v SA at Auckland 1999
  26 (-2)  Mark Ramprakash   Eng     615   28.1  633 v Aus at Melbourne 1998
  27 (+14) Jimmy Adams       WI      605  50.36  830 v Aus at Port of Spain 1995
  28 (-3)  Mark Taylor       Aus     601  43.49  793 v Ind at Brisbane 1991
  29 (-3)  Sadagopan Ramesh  Ind     600     62  600 v Sri at Colombo 1999
  30 (-3)  Jonty Rhodes      SA      598  35.18  599 v WI at Centurion 1999


Four batsmen who reached their peak batting points today:

34=  (+2)  Nathan Astle      NZ      577  35.12  577 v SA at Christchurch 1999
  69 (+19) Herschelle Gibbs  SA      380* 30.81  380 v NZ at Christchurch 1999
  93 (+3)  Shane Warne       Aus     275  15.14  275 v WI at Kingston 1999
 144 ( - ) Glenn McGrath     Aus     116   5.84  116 v WI at Kingston 1999

Bowlers 17 March 1999

Rank Change Player            Ctry  PointCareer  Highest rating of career (showing
                                         Average points player had after match)
   1 ( - ) Allan Donald      SA      895  21.66  895 v NZ at Christchurch 1999
   2 ( - ) Glenn McGrath     Aus     863  22.62  883 v WI at Adelaide 1997
   3 ( - ) Curtly Ambrose    WI      839  21.18  915 v Eng at Port of Spain 1994
   4 ( - ) Shaun Pollock     SA      836  22.11  838 v WI at Cape Town 1999
   5 (+4)  Wasim Akram       Pak     764  22.69  828 v Aus at Karachi I 1994
 5=  (+1)  M.Muralitharan    Sri     764   26.9  787 v Eng at The Oval 1998
 5=  ( - ) Simon Doull       NZ      764  26.95  795 v Ind at Hamilton 1999
   8 (-1)  Anil Kumble       Ind     761  27.83  859 v Sri at Bangalore 1994
   9 (+2)  Courtney Walsh    WI      745   25.1  803 v Eng at Edgbaston 1995
  10 (-2)  Stuart MacGill    Aus     743  21.67  760 v WI at Port of Spain 1999
  11 (-1)  Angus Fraser      Eng     721  27.32  794 v SA at Headingley 1998
  12 ( - ) Javagal Srinath   Ind     696  29.95  703 v Pak at Calcutta 1999
     (+1)  Saqlain Mushtaq   Pak     696  29.56  696 v Sri at Dhaka 1999
  14 ( - ) Waqar Younis      Pak     671  21.96  912 v Zim at Rawalpindi 1993
     (+1)  Heath Streak      Zim     671  24.83  752 v Sri at Colombo 1996
  16 (+1)  Darren Gough      Eng     641  28.62  693 v SA at Headingley 1998
  17 (-1)  Shane Warne       Aus     631   25.3  907 v Eng at Melbourne 1994
  18 (+1)  Mushtaq Ahmed     Pak     627  29.22  819 v NZ at Rawalpindi 1996
     (+2)  Dean Headley      Eng     627  26.46  627 v Aus at Sydney 1999
  20 (+1)  Paul Reiffel      Aus     596  26.96  722 v WI at Brisbane 1996
  21 (-3)  Jason Gillespie   Aus     590   21.7  701 v Eng at Headingley 1997
  22 ( - ) Ian Bishop        WI      576  24.27  850 v Eng at Edgbaston 1995
  23 (+1)  Jacques Kallis    SA      550  28.88  589 v WI at Centurion 1999
  24 (-1)  Pommie Mbangwa    Zim     546  24.58  605 v Pak at Peshawar 1998
  25 (-1)  Chris Cairns      NZ      537  32.73  549 v Sri at Colombo 1998
  26 ( - ) Franklyn Rose     WI      520  25.08  541 v SA at Durban 1998
  27 ( - ) Venkatapathy Raju Ind     517  29.79  690 v WI at Chandigarh 1994
  28 ( - ) Dominic Cork      Eng     509  31.81  680 v SA at Johannesburg 1995
  29 (+2)  Andrew Caddick    Eng     493  32.35  563 v WI at Kingston 1998
  30 (-1)  Dion Nash         NZ      491  29.64  560 v Ind at Wellington 1998

Two bowlers who reached their peak bowling points today:

  37 (+3)  Shoaib Akhtar     Pak     418   34.6  418 v Sri at Dhaka 1999
71=  (NEW) Nehemiah Perry    WI      190  24.83  190 v Aus at Kingston 1999