Notts off-spinner Graeme Swann has capped off a memorable year by breaking into the top five of the Reliance Mobile ICC Player Rankings for Test bowlers and all-rounders for the first time.

Swann begins 2010 in third position in the bowlers’ category of cricket’s official player rankings after his man-of-the-match performance in the second Test against South Africa in Durban.

The 30-year-old took match figures of 56-6-164-9, including a five-wicket haul in the second innings and, as a result, has gained a further eight places, moving ahead of spin rivals Harbhajan Singh of India and Sri Lanka’s Muttiah Muralidaran in the process.

It is Swann’s highest ranking of his career to date and his good form with the bat recently – he scored 85 in the first innings of the Centurion Test – has meant that he has also gained three places in that list, putting him in fourth position behind Australia’s Mitchell Johnson.

The news is also good for Swann’s Nottinghamshire team-mate Stuart Broad, who has gained six places to seventh in the bowling rankings. Broad’s pace was the perfect foil to Swann’s beguiling off-spinners and his four second-innings wickets helped expedite the Proteas’ demise in the second Test, which England won by an innings and 98 runs.
 
Broad has also broken into the top five of the Reliance Mobile ICC Player Rankings for Test all-rounders with a career-high rating in that category.

Reliance Mobile ICC Player Rankings for bowlers
1 ( - )  Dale Steyn  SA  
2 ( - )  Mitchell Johnson Aus  
3 (+8)   Graeme Swann Eng
4 (-1)   M Muralidaran SL 
5 (-1)   Mohammad Asif Pak  
6 ( - )  Harbhajan Singh Ind
7 (+6)   Stuart Broad Eng  
8 (-4)   Makhaya Ntini SA 
9 (-1)   Stuart Clark Aus
10 (-1)  Shane Bond NZ  
11 (-1)  Zaheer Khan Ind
12 (-5)  Paul Harris SA 
13 (-1)  James Anderson Eng     
14 (-1)  Danish Kaneria Pak
15 ( - ) Daniel Vettori NZ
16 (+2)  Jerome Taylor WI
17 ( - ) Ryan Sidebottom Eng  
18 (-1)  Brett Lee Aus
19 ( - ) Chris Martin NZ 
20 (+1)  Iain O'Brien NZ

Reliance Mobile ICC Player Rankings all-rounders
1 ( - ) Jacques Kallis SA
2 ( - ) Daniel Vettori NZ
3 ( - ) Mitchell Johnson Aus
4 (+3)  Graeme Swann Eng
5 (+1)  Stuart Broad Eng