Australia captain Ricky Ponting's twin centuries in his 100th Test reinforced his position as the world's top Test batsman in the LG ICC player rankings.
And as if that was not reason enough for him to celebrate, the 2-0 series win over South Africa by his side reinforced Australia's position as the top Test team in the updated LG ICC Test Championship.
Also see: Ponting's Perfect 100
Ponting's scores of 120 and 143 not out in Australia's eight-wicket win over the Proteas in Sydney has lifted him through the 900 point threshold in the rankings, something only ever achieved by the most outstanding cricketers of all time.
To put that into context, only Matthew Hayden among current Test batsmen has achieved a higher rating than Ponting's new mark of 922 points.
The big left-hander reached 935 points in 2002 after twin hundreds of his own, against England in Brisbane, continued a golden run of form.
Australia's series win lifted their lead at the top of the LG ICC Test Championship table to a healthy 14 points, completing a highly satisfactory home Test summer for Ponting's men.
They started the season with a lead of just eight points over England but five wins and a draw in six matches against the West Indies and South Africa, together with England's 2-0 series loss in Pakistan have dispelled fears they may have had of being overtaken.
Australia's nearest challengers are now India after their recent series win against Sri Lanka.
Ponting's scores, his 27th and 28th Test hundreds (with the first of them helping to ease him past 8000 Test runs), were needed to retain his lead in LG ICC Player Rankings because Jacques Kallis's scores of 111 and 50 not out lifted the South African back up three places to second.
Kallis, the ICC's Test Player of the Year, started the series in top spot in the batting list but, after missing the Perth Test through injury, twin failures in Melbourne dropped him to fifth place and not even a return to form in Sydney could help him regain the lead.
Hayden slips down three spots to fifth, despite 90 in Australia's successful run-chase on Friday, while there are contrasting fortunes for other batsmen on both sides in the wake of the Sydney Test.
India's Rahul Dravid, Virendra Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar occupy the sixth, seventh and ninth spots.
In the bowling department, Glenn McGrath regained the top spot from Shane Warne, who slipped to third position, also behind Sri Lanka's Muttiah Muralitharan, after a relatively modest Test in which he claimed just two of the 16 South Africa wickets to fall.
Brett Lee (21st, up two places) and Stuart MacGill (unchanged in 22nd place) are both still just outside the top 20 positions.
For South Africa, with the ball, Shaun Pollock dropped out of the top 10 in the LG ICC Player Rankings for bowlers for the first time since 1998. The former captain now lies in 11th position.
Kallis retains his position as the world's leading all-rounder in the LG ICC Rankings and Pollock remains in third with the two South Africans sandwiching England's Andrew Flintoff.
LG ICC Test Championship
After the Australia v South Africa Test series
Rank/Team Rating
1 Australia 129
2 India 115
3 England 113
4 Pakistan 103
5 New Zealand 100
6 South Africa 99
7 Sri Lanka 96
8 West Indies 73
9 Zimbabwe 27
10 Bangladesh 5
(Developed by David Kendix)
LG ICC Test Rankings
After the Australia v South Africa Test series
Batsmen
Rank Player Team Points Avge HS Ranking
1 ( - ) Ricky Ponting Aus 922 57.71 922 v SA at Sydney 2006
2 (+3) Jacques Kallis SA 888 57.24 896 v Eng at Cape Town 2005
3 (-1) Brian Lara WI 874 53.86 911 v SA at Cape Town 2004
4 (-1) Inzamam-ul-Haq Pak 870 51.61 870 v Eng at Lahore 2005
5 (-2) Matthew Hayden Aus 858 54.17 935 v Eng at Brisbane 2002
6 ( - ) Rahul Dravid Ind 836 57.16 892 v Pak at Kolkata 2005
7 ( - ) Virender Sehwag Ind 786 53.54 854 v SA at Kolkata 2004
8 ( - ) M.E.Trescothick Eng 768 45.47 818 v Pak at Multan 2005
9 ( - ) S.R.Tendulkar Ind 740 56.71 898 v Zim at Nagpur 2002
10 ( - ) Moh'd Yousuf Pak 736 48.56 758 v WI at Sharjah 2002
11 ( - ) Younis Khan Pak 713 43.72 757 v Ind at Bangalore 2005
12 ( - ) S.Chanderpaul WI 711 45.94 811 v SL at Colombo (SSC) 2005
13 (+1) M.Jayawardene SL 699 47.80 836 v Eng at Birmingham 2002
14 (+4) H.H.Gibbs SA 692 46.82 825 v WI at Centurion 2004
15 (+1) Andrew Strauss Eng 690 46.31 769 v SA at Johannesburg 2005
16 (+4) Adam Gilchrist Aus 687 50.18 874 v SA at Cape Town 2002
17 (-4) Justin Langer Aus 686 45.72 780 v SA at Sydney 2002
18 (-1) Damien Martyn Aus 676 47.96 848 v NZ at Wellington 2005
19 (-4) Graeme Smith SA 674 51.54 756 v NZ at Wellington 2004
20 (-1) K.C.Sangakkara SL 668 46.60 813 v Pak at Lahore 2002
Bowlers
Rank (Change) Player Team Points Avge HS Ranking
1 (+1) Glenn McGrath Aus 853 21.55 914 v Eng at The Oval 2001
2 (+1) M.Muralidaran SL 845 22.47 915 v Pak at Lahore 2002
3 (-2) Shane Warne Aus 842 25.15 905 v Eng at Melbourne 1994
4 ( - ) Shoaib Akhtar Pak 798 24.75 855 v NZ at Wellington 2003
5 (+2) Andrew Flintoff Eng 781 31.51 810 v Pak at Multan 2005
6 (-1) Makhaya Ntini SA 778 29.22 807 v WI at Port-of-Spain 2005
7 (+1) Chaminda Vaas SL 775 28.81 800 v Ind at Chennai 2005
8 (+1) Anil Kumble Ind 774 28.10 859 v SL at Bangalore 1994
9 (+1) Andre Nel SA 763 * 26.22 763 v Aus at Sydney 2006
10 (+1) Irfan Pathan Ind 756 * 26.13 761 v SL at Delhi 2005
11 (-5) Shaun Pollock SA 742 22.76 909 v Eng at Johannesburg 1999
12 ( - ) Matt'w Hoggard Eng 730 30.07 762 v Aus at The Oval 2005
13 ( - ) Danish Kaneria Pak 713 30.55 723 v Eng at Multan 2005
14 ( - ) Harbhajan Singh Ind 699 28.08 765 v NZ at Wellington 2002
15 ( - ) Shane Bond NZ 696 * 20.80 696 v Zim at Bulawayo 2005
16 ( - ) Steve Harmison Eng 679 28.72 875 v WI at The Oval 2004
17 ( - ) Shabbir Ahmed Pak 634 * 23.03 647 v Eng at Multan 2005
18 (+1) Simon Jones Eng 606 * 28.22 631 v Aus at Nottingham 2005
19 (-1) Jason Gillespie Aus 604 26.61 812 v NZ at Adelaide 2004
20 ( - ) Corey Collymore WI 600 * 31.36 600 v Aus at Adelaide 2005
All-rounders
Rank Player Team Points
1 Kallis SA 496
2 Flintoff Eng 454
3 Pollock SA 340
4 Pathan Ind 302*
5 Vettori NZ 279
* denotes provisional ranking.
