Before the weekend's action in the Caribbean, South Africa [ Images ] narrowly headed Ricky Ponting's [ Images ] world champions but a shock defeat by Bangladesh on Saturday coupled with Sunday's result reversed the positions, the International Cricket Council [ Images ] said.

Long-time leaders Australia lost their number one spot after crashing to a 3-0 series defeat in New Zealand [ Images ] in February.

Towards the other end of the rankings, England's defeat meant they stayed seventh, two points ahead of the West Indies [ Images ] and three behind India [ Images ].

If results go the way of the hosts in their remaining World Cup matches, however, they could overtake Michael Vaughan's [ Images ] team before the end of the Super Eights stage of the tournament which finishes on April 28 in Barbados.

Rankings

1 Australia 128 points, 2 South Africa 125, 3 New Zealand 115, 4 Sri Lanka [ Images ] 110, 5 Pakistan 110, 6 India 106, 7 England 103, 8 West Indies 101, 9 Bangladesh 46, 10 Zimbabwe 22, 11 Kenya 0