ODI sweep puts Pak at striking distance to India
Posted on Jan 19, 2009 at 12:35 | Updated Jan 19, 2009 at 13:18
0 Comments
Bangalore: Sri Lanka will move up two places to fifth in the Reliance Mobile ICC ODI Championship table if it beats Pakistan in all three ODIs coming up in Karachi and Lahore.
Mahela Jayawardena’s team currently lies in seventh position following a tour of mixed results in Bangladesh. In a tri-series that also involved Zimbabwe, Sri Lanka lost one match to the home side but later exacted revenge in what was a thrilling and closely fought final, a ICC release said on Monday.
Now Sri Lanka is in Karachi for the first ODI on 20 January knowing that a 3-0 result in the series will ensure it leap-frogs both Shoaib Malik’s men and also sixth-placed England.
However, the reverse result would relegate Sri Lanka from its current tally of 105 ratings points to 102 which would still be significantly ahead of eighth-placed West Indies, which has 91 points to its name at present, the release adds.
Victory for Pakistan in the series will ensure it keeps the pressure on India and a 3-0 win for Shoaib will put his team within one point of Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s side.
The Bangladesh v Zimbabwe series is underway in Mirpur with the visiting team hoping to move past Ireland into 10th place in the ODI Championship. To do this it needs to win the series 2-1 or 3-0 while a 1-2 defeat will still gain it one ratings point but that would not be enough to overtake the Irish.
Meanwhile, Australia’s Nathan Bracken has slipped below Daniel Vettori at the top of the Reliance Mobile ICC Player Rankings for ODI bowlers after the first two ODIs against South Africa. Kyle Mills has received a similar boost as his captain meaning New Zealand can now boast two bowlers in the top three.
In the two games so far, Bracken has taken one wicket at an average of 87.00 and that was enough to let the Black Caps’ skipper back to top spot.
The two left-armed trans-Tasman rivals have been trading places for some weeks now and with three ODIs still remaining in the current series, not to mention five coming up between Australia and New Zealand next month, there is no sign of an end to that yo-yoing just yet.
Mills has benefited from the fact that Muttiah Muralidaran of Sri Lanka and Australia’s Mitchell Johnson have fallen back.
| Ads by Google |
Be the first to comment.