West Indies' Marlon Samuels plays a shot against South Africa on the third day of their first Test cricket match in Port Elizabeth last Friday. - REUTERS

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (CMC):

On the back of the West Indies' tremendous first Test win over South Africa on Saturday, several Caribbean players elevated themselves on the LG International Cricket Council (ICC) ratings.

The latest rankings released on Sunday showed West Indies batsmen Chris Gayle, Daren Ganga and Marlon Samuels moving up, as did their teammates Jerome Taylor, Daren Powell and Darren Sammy on the bowlers' list.

Samuels, who scored 94 and 40 for the Man of the Match award in his side's first Test win in 31 months, surged 18 places up the batting ratings to Number 63.

Captain steering the team

Captain Gayle, with innings of 66 and 29 as he steered his side to their first ever Test win in South Africa, jumped five places to 23rd while his opening partner Ganga climbed 11 places to 58th.

Shivnarine Chanderpaul, whose 104 in the first innings was the foundation for a big first innings total, established himself in 10th position and is now just nine points adrift of Pakistan's ninth-positioned Younis Khan.

Chanderpaul and Gayle are the only West Indies batsmen on the Top 30.

Sri Lanka's Kumar Sangakkara returned to the top of the batting rankings for the second time in three weeks after Australia's Ricky Ponting and South African Jacques Kallis suffered rare batting failures in the Melbourne and Port Elizabeth Tests respectively.

Ponting slipped from number one to number three and Kallis remained at number two.

Like their batsmen, West Indies' bowlers are also on an upward move.

Fidel Edwards retained his place in 34th position, but Taylor jumped seven places to 35th spot, Powell climbed two places to 38th position and Sammy lifted four places to number 46.

In the LG ICC Player Rankings for Test bowlers, Australian Stuart Clark replaced South Africa's Makhaya Ntini in second place behind Sri Lankan Muttiah Muralitharan, the undisputed number one.

South African Dale Steyn dropped three places to sixth.

Clark's effort of five for 48 in the Melbourne Test against India, helped him jump two places and placed him 27 points ahead of Ntini, who managed four for 135 in the Port Elizabeth match against West Indies and consequently conceded 13 ratings points.

India captain Anil Kumble and Brett Lee of Australia gained one place each. Kumble's match effort (7-186) puts him in fourth place, while Lee's six for 89 pushed him to fifth position, just two points behind the Indian wrist spinner.

Corey Collymore, not selected for the current tour of South Africa, is the only West Indies player in the bowling Top 30.

In the rankings for all-rounders, Gayle leapfrogged India's Irfan Pathan in sixth place. The West Indies captain is 29 points behind fifth-placed Chaminda Vaas of Sri Lanka.