Dubai:Australian captain Ricky Ponting's fiery 164-run innings at the Wanderers was not enough to secure victory for his side in the decisive One-dayer match against South Africa but it did push him to a new record points tally at the top of the LG ICC ODI batting rankings.

Ponting's personal best total has increased the lead he holds over teammate Adam Gilchrist at the top of the official table.

Fellow Australian, Andrew Symonds, has also reached a new personal best in climbing to third place in the batting rankings after the ''greatest ever One-day game'' which saw record books being rewritten.

Not surprisingly, South African smasher Herschelle Gibbs, whose astonishing 175-run innings paved the way for the victory, also helped him improve from 22nd to 11th over the course of the series.

Gibbs is now the second ranked South African batsman behind skipper Graeme Smith who is back in the top four after scoring 244 runs in the series.

The high scoring series finale has had a negative impact on several bowlers with Brett Lee dropping out of the top three to sixth place, well below the career best ranking he held just over a month ago.

On a brighter note for Australia, Nathan Bracken has moved up into the top 10 for the first time.

The series victory means that South Africa are likely to be the second-seeded side in the ICC Champions Trophy this October. This will ensure they avoid Australia in the group phase of the event in India.

Australia's rating is the lowest it has been since October 2003 but they still retain a comfortable 15-point lead over their nearest rival.

Further down the ODI table, the fight for sixth place is becoming increasingly crucial as the team that is seventh on April 1 will have to play off against the eighth, ninth and tenth placed sides for the right to take part in the second round of the ICC Champions Trophy in India. England, currently sixth with 108 points, have two ODIs to play against India while Sri Lanka, seventh on 107 points, have three ODI matches against Pakistan before the cut-off date.

LG ICC ODI Rankings (Top 10)

Teams: 1.Australia 133 2.South Africa 118 3.New Zealand 113 4.India 113 5.Pakistan 112 6.England 108 7.Sri Lanka 107 8.West Indies 89 9.Zimbabwe 42 10.Bangladesh 17

Player Rankings: 1.Ricky Ponting (Aus) 805, 2.Adam Gilchrist (Aus) 793, 3.Andrew Symonds (Aus) 761, 4.Graeme Smith (SA) 759, 5. Kumara Sangakkara (SL) 754, 6.Mahendra Dhoni (Ind) 754, 7. Mike Hussey (Aus) 748, 8.Yuvraj Singh (Ind) 719, 9.Michael Clarke (Aus) 716, 10.Rahul Dravid (Ind) 709

Bowler Rankings: 1.Shaun Pollock (SA) 858, 2.Glenn McGrath (Aus) 768, 3.Shane Bond (NZ) 762, 4.Daniel Vettori (NZ) 750, 5.Irfan Pathan (Ind) 737, 6.Brett Lee (Aus) 729, 7.Muttiah Muralitharan (SL) 710, 8.Chaminda Vaas (SL) 703, 9.Nathan Bracken (Aus) 693, 10.Makhaya Ntini (SA) 686

Allrounder rankings: 1.Shaun Pollock (SA) 462, 2.Andrew Flintoff (Eng) 452, 3.Andrew Symonds (Aus) 384, 4.Irfan Pathan (Ind) 369, 5.Shoaib Malik (Pak) 358