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Cape Town - Proteas batsman Faf du Plessis admits he is in the form of his life, as he rockets up the batting rankings after the Proteas series whitewash against Sri Lanka.
According to the ICC website, Du Plessis has cracked into the top five for the first time in his career after scoring 410 runs with two centuries and one half-century in the Sri Lankan series.
The Proteas Test skipper's sublime form throughout the series has helped him leapfrog seven batsmen to claim fourth position.
Du Plessis earned 67 points during the series and now leads team-mates Quinton de Kock in fifth position and sixth-ranked Hashim Amla by 10 and 25 points, respectively.
David Warner of Australia leads the batting table, and he is followed by Proteas ODI skipper AB de Villiers and Virat Kohli of India.
This also means that there are three Proteas batsmen in the top 5 of the ODI batting rankings.
READ: Tahir jumps to No 1 in ODI rankings
Other batsmen to rise in the latest rankings are Amla in sixth (up by one place), David Miller in 26th (up by eight places) and Farhaan Behardien in 45th (up by two places).
Du Plessis, who also won man-of-the-series, explained that he's in the form of his life and wishes to continue his impressive run in New Zealand.
"I think that this is possibly my best purple patch," Du Plessis told reporters in Centurion following their 88-run victory against Sri Lanka on Friday.
"I'm learning this process, as I need to understand what I'm doing really well.
"After an innings I have to make sure that I don't rely on previous performances and start over to really know what makes it successful.
"Obviously there are no guarantees in life, but at the moment my blueprint of batting seems to be working really well, so it's just making sure I prepare smart.
"When you play like this, it's really important to cash in, because the time will turn again and I just got to make sure I'm on top for as long as possible."
Meanwhile, the only good news for Sri Lanka is that star batsman Niroshan Dickwella has rocketed 65 places up to sit 62nd position in the batting table.
The Proteas travel to New Zealand this weekend and will play their first T20I game on Friday, February 17.
Top 10 ICC ODI batsmen rankings:
1. David Warner (AUS) - 871
2. AB de Villiers (RSA) - 853
3. Virat Kohli (IND) - 852
4. Faf du Plessis (RSA) - 788
5. Quinton de Kock (RSA) - 778
6. Kane Williamson (NZ) - 763
7. Hashim Amla (RSA) - 763
8. Joe Root (ENG) - 753
9. Martin Guptill (NZ) - 739
10. Babar Azam (PAK) - 733
