By Jon Steer
May 25 2004

Steve Harmison moved up to 2nd in the world rankings after his eight wickets in the first test against New Zealand. Harmy is now the highest ranked English bowler since Ian Botham. He moved past Shoaib leaving only Muttiah Muralitheran is ahead of him. A good performance from Harmy in the first test with four wickets in each innings - only a dropped catch from that Kent wicket keeper robbed him of his first five wicket haul in England.

As expected we won't be seeing him playing for Durham for a while, he has been ordered to rest ahead of the second test. The good news for Durham is that Colly will be available for the Notts match today and the next one day game as well. In fact with the performance by Strauss in the first test we may see a lot more of Colly than expected. Of course if Nasser retires and Vaughan doesn't recover in time then maybe not...

The last English bowler to reach second place in the rankings was Ian Botham. Well before his time with Durham though.