England's Hales becomes No 1 ranked T20 batsman

England's Alex Hales has become the number-one ranked batsmen in the International Cricket Council Twenty20 rankings after his match-winning innings against Australia on Saturday. Nottinghamshire opener Hales's 94, off just 61 balls, provided the platform for England's 27-run win that saw them level the two-match series at 1-1. Hales received 65 rating points for this performance and that helped him leapfrog New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum at the top of the ICC's Twenty20 international batting standings. Australia's Aaron Finch, who struck a Twenty20 international record 156 in the series opener at Southampton on Thursday, moved up into the top 20 for the first time in his career after a huge rise of 78 places into 20th spot. Meanwhile England seamers Steven Finn and Jade Dernbach have entered the top 10 of the equivalent Twenty20 international bowler rankings for the first time. Finn, who took two wickets in the series, is now in sixth place (up by six) and Dernbach's six wickets saw him jump 12 places into seventh position. West Indies' Sunil Narine still heads the bowler rankings, with two more spinners in the Pakistan duo of Saeed Ajmal and Mohammed Hafeez second and third respectively. The 1-1 series draw saw England remain sixth and Australia seventh in the ICC Twenty20 team standings. Leading ICC T20 international rankings at Aug 31 -- after the conclusion of England-Australia T20I series -- (rank, team, rating points, change in rating points): Teams 1 Sri Lanka 128 2 Pakistan 125 3 India 121 4 West Indies 120 5 South Africa 118 6 England 112 (-1) 7 Australia 103 (+1) 8 New Zealand 102 9 Ireland 81 10 Bangladesh 74 11 Scotland 62 12 Zimbabwe 46 13 Netherlands 36 14 Kenya 34 Batsmen (rank, change in ranking, player, team, ratings points, average, strike-rate, highest rating points): 1 (+1) Alex Hales ENG 842 39.11 136 842 v AUS at Durham 2013 2 (-1) Brendon McCullum NZL 818 35.50 135 849 v BAN at Pallekele 2012 3 (-) Shane Watson AUS 747 30.11 150 832 v RSA at Colombo 2012 4 (-) David Warner AUS 743 28.63 138 826 v WIS at St Lucia 2010 5 (-) Martin Guptill NZL 738 35.39 124 793 v RSA at Hamilton 2012 6 (-) Mahela Jayawardene SRI 731 32.48 134 785 v AUS at Pallekele 2011 6 (-) Virat Kohli IND 731 34.87 130 731 v PAK at Ahmedabad 2012 8 (-) Suresh Raina IND 719 33.60 136 776 v ENG at Kolkata 2011 9 (-) Chris Gayle WIS 702 33.30 143 831 v AUS at Colombo 2012 10 (-) JP Duminy RSA 676 34.96 122 694 v ENG at Durham 2012 Bowlers (rank, change in ranking, player, team, rating points, average, economy-rate, highest rating points) 1 (-) Sunil Narine WIS 817 16.75 5.94 817 v PAK at St Vincent 2013 2 (-) Saeed Ajmal PAK 721 17.15 6.26 788 v NZL at Pallekele 2012 3 (-) Mohammad Hafeez PAK 689 19.76 6.56 689 v ZIM at Harare 2013 4 (-) Ajantha Mendis SRI 686 12.84 6.10 762 v WIS at Colombo 2012 5 (-) Shakib Al Hasan BAN 668 19.84 6.75 668 v ZIM at Bulawayo 2013 6 (+6) Steven Finn ENG 667 19.48 7.16 667 v AUS at Durham 2013 7 (+12) Jade Dernbach ENG 664 20.48 7.86 664 v AUS at Durham 2013 8 (-2) Abdur Razzak BAN 660 18.94 6.92 661 v IRL at Belfast 2012 9 (-2) Prosper Utseya ZIM 659 28.04 6.57 667 v Pak at Harare 2013 10 (-2) Nuwan Kulasekara SRI 655 24.50 7.21 676 v AUS at Melbourne 2013 Source: AFP