Inzamam and Muralitharan top Test performers

Pakistan batsman Inzamam-ul-Haq's score of 329 against New Zealand and Sri Lankan bowler Muttiah Muralitharan's figures of 9 for 51 against Zimbabwe have been rated as the best individual performances in Test cricket over the past 12 months.

Wisden marked the first anniversary of its player ratings by releasing the year's top 10 best batting and bowling performances in Test and one-day cricket.

While Inzamam and Muralitharan top the Test charts, Dinesh Mongia (159 not out for India against Zimbabwe) and Pakistan's captain Waqar Younis (7-36 against England) take the honours in the one-day international ratings.

"This first year of the Wisden 100 ratings shows how many exceptional performances there have been at international level," Steven Lynch, editor of Wisden Online, said.

"Included among these are several Test and one-day best performances, such as Nathan Astle's fastest Test 200 and Chaminda Vaas's best-ever bowling figures in one-day-international cricket."

Wisden said it considered 12 differently weighted and independent parameters in choosing the top performances, such as strength of opposition, state of the match and pitch conditions.

The Test batting top 10 also features Mark Butcher's match-winning 173 not out against Australia, Astle's fastest Test double-century against England and Adam Gilchrist's unbeaten 138 for Australia in South Africa.

Wisden said a measure of the quality of Test innings played is that Gilchrist's double-century in the same series did not even make in into the year's top batting feats.