Steyn and Shahadat move up
South African paceman Dale Steyn was fast closing in on number one Test bowler Muttiah Muralidaran after an impressive performance in the opening Test against Bangladesh here.
Steyn picked up 38 valuable ratings points in the first Test, which his team won by five wickets on Monday, and is now just 37 behind the Sri Lankan spin wizard, according to the official rankings released Tuesday.
The 24-year-old, who sits in second place, also consolidated his position as the highest rated paceman, with 870 points and is closing rapidly on the magic 900, a level that has been achieved by only a few among the current crop.
He took 13 Tests to reach his first 50 wickets but made 47 dismissals in his next six outings, giving him an average of eight per match.
Steyn's latest Test saw him walk off with seven wickets on a pitch that offered no assistance. And he goes into Friday's second match at Chittagong needing just two wickets to reach 100 Test dismissals in only his 20th match.
Youngsters Morne Morkel of South Africa and Shahadat Hossain of Bangladesh were the other big movers in the bowling list, released by the International Cricket Council.
The 22-year-old Hossain, playing his 14th Test, took nine wickets to jump 12 places into 38th while Morkel, who took 5-50 in the first innings, rocketed 24 places to 63rd.
Morkel was playing only his second Test after making his debut against India in December 2006.
Ratings for bowlers are calculated by taking into account various factors including wickets taken, runs conceded and the opposition.
Not surprisingly for a low-scoring match, the bowlers did far better than the batsmen at Dhaka in terms of improving their rankings.
South Africa batsman Jacques Kallis dropped out of top three after two disappointing scores -- a 17 and a seven -- by his high standards.
His poor performance saw him fall below the 900-mark, where he had been after a successful campaign in Pakistan last October.
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