Dhoni - tops the icc ODI batsman ranking,nominee for 2 icc awards

India skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni toppled his South African counterpart Greame Smith to regain the top spot in the latest ICC ODI batsmen ranking.
By virtue of his consistent performance, including 76 and 71 in the pevious two one-dayers of the on-going ODI series against Sri Lanka, Dhoni has 803 rating points in his kitty, 27 points higher than Smith who occupies the second spot.
Dhoni had previously occupied the number one position for a brief period in 2006.
Australia captain Ricky Ponting is in the third spot with 751 points followed by team-mate Michael Hussey and England skipper Kevin Pieterson.Master blaster Sachin Tendulkar is placed the ninth while an out of form Yuvraj Singh is languishing at 18th

Also Mahendra Singh Dhoni is in line for dual honours in the International Cricket's Council's (ICC) annual awards scheduled to be held in Dubai on Wednesday.Dhoni, who currently sits at the top of ODI batsmen rankings, has been nominated in two categories -- ODI Player of the Year and Twenty20 International Performance of the Year, ICC announced on Monday.Besides Dhoni, the other Indians in the fray for the awards are Sachin Tendulkar (ODI Player of the Year award), Yuvraj Singh (T20 International performance of the Year) and Ishant Sharma (Emerging Player of the Year).West Indian Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Sri Lanka captain Mahela Jayawardena and South Africa's Dale Steyn have been nominated for both the Cricketer of the Year and Test Player of the Year categories in the fifth edition of the awards.The other nominee for the Cricketer of the Year is South Africa captain Graeme Smith (1172 runs) while his team-mate Jacques Kallis features in the Test category as the top scorer with 1268 runs in 14 Tests.Chanderpaul has scored 819 runs in eight Test for the calendar year (Aug 9, 2007 to Aug 12, 2008) and has the top average in both forms of the game. Jayawerdena has scored 1127 runs in 10 Tests while South African speedster Steyn has 86 scalps to his name in just 14 Tests. None of the four players shortlisted for the Cricketer of the Year Award has previously lifted the prestigious Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy.The dashing Dhoni has had an awesome season where he led India to victory in the inaugural T20 World Cup in England, took the reins of India's ODI team with aplomb, led the team to ODI series wins away from home in Australia and Sri Lanka. All this while he inspired the team raising his own performance with the bat that saw him dislodge South African Graeme Smith from the top spot in ODI rankings. Dhoni scored 1298 in 39 matches at an average of 49.Dhoni will be up against teammate Sachin Tendulkar, the top scorer in ODIs for the calendar year with 1310 runs, in the ODI Player of Year award category which also features Nathan Bracken and Mohammad Yousuf..