Dubai, 18 November 2008
Proteas must win 2-0 to do so; Kallis, Smith and de Villiers can challenge at the top while it could be time for Shahadat to make his mark
South Africa will regain second position in the Reliance Mobile ICC Test Championship table if it beats Bangladesh 2-0 in the two-match series which gets underway in Bloemfontein on Wednesday.
India overtook Graeme Smith’s team after beating Australia 2-0 in a recent series but only by a fraction of ratings point and so if the Proteas can win both games against Bangladesh , they will gain one point and move back into second place.
However, even if South Africa wins the series 1-0, it will lose ground on Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s team and it could even lose as many as seven points if it was to lose the series 2-0.
On the other hand, Bangladesh will gain 14 points if it manages to win the series 2-0 but even if it loses 1-0, it will still earn one point to go with the one it got after its recent two-match series against New Zealand.
Meanwhile, South Africa batsmen Jacques Kallis, Smith, AB de Villiers and Ashwell Prince can make further ground up the Reliance Mobile ICC Player Rankings for Test batsmen with good showings in the Tests. Kallis in 10th position is currently the highest-ranked Protea and the only batsman from either side in the top 10.
He is closely followed by his captain, Smith, in 12th place while de Villiers is enjoying the highest rating of his career to date in 17th spot and Prince is in 20th position. All are a long way behind number-one batsman and the ICC Cricketer of the Year 2008 Shivnarine Chanderpaul in first place.
South Africa ’s bowlers are relatively stronger with two – Dale Steyn and Makhaya Ntini – in the top five. It is unlikely that Steyn will overtake Sri Lanka ’s Muttiah Muralidaran into top spot but the young fast bowler can close that gap with a view to launching an assault on the number-one position in the subsequent Test series against Australia .
There are no other players from either side in the top 20 but Kallis is still the number one ranked player in the Reliance Mobile ICC Player Rankings for all-rounders. He leads from New Zealand captain Daniel Vettori in second position and England ’s Andrew Flintoff in third.
For Bangladesh , fast bowler Shahadat Hossain has been in good form in the build-up to the first Test and he will no doubt feel that he can improve upon his current ranking of 42nd position.
Indeed, he is probably Bangladesh ’s form bowler at present and will take extra confidence from the fact that he has saved some of his best bowling in the past for the Proteas. Earlier this year he took 6-27 in the first innings of the first Test at Dhaka and ended up with match figures of 9-97 as South Africa won a hard-fought encounter.
Just ahead of Shahadat is the only other Bangladesh bowler of the current squad in the top 50, Mashrafe bin Mortaza in 41st place.
Upcoming matches:
19-23 Nov – South Africa v Bangladesh (Test), Bloemfontein
26-30 Nov – South Africa v Bangladesh (Test), Centurion
Reliance Mobile ICC Test Championship (as of 18 November, ahead of the series between South Africa and Bangladesh )
Rank Team Rating
1 Australia 129
2 India 116
3 South Africa 116
4 Sri Lanka 108
5 England 104
6 Pakistan 100
7 New Zealand 82
8 West Indies 81
9 Bangladesh 1
Reliance Mobile ICC Test Rankings (as of 18 November 2008, before South Africa v Bangladesh )
Batsmen
Rank Player Team Points Ave HS Rating
1 S.Chanderpaul WI 890 ! 49.08 890 v Aus at Bridgetown 2008
2 K Sangakkara SL 886 54.79 938 v Eng at Kandy 2007
3 Mohd Yousuf Pak 880 55.49 933 v WI at Karachi 2006
4 Mike Hussey Aus 876 66.31 921 v WI at Kingston 2008
5 M Jayawardena SL 837 52.41 847 v Ind at Colombo (SSC) 2008
6 Kevin Pietersen Eng 829 50.51 905 v WI at Headingley 2007
7 Ricky Ponting Aus 826 57.58 942 v Eng at Adelaide 2006
8 Yunus Khan Pak 799 49.14 856 v Eng at Headingley 2006
9 Matthew Hayden Aus 781 52.64 935 v Eng at Brisbane 2002
10 Jacques Kallis SA 774 55.46 935 v NZ at Centurion 2007
11 Virender Sehwag Ind 765 51.96 854 v SA at Kolkata 2004
12 Graeme Smith SA 739 49.23 759 v Eng at Edgbaston 2008
13 VVS Laxman Ind 732 45.25 753 v Aus at Sydney 2004
14 Alastair Cook Eng 686 42.88 707 v SL at Galle 2007
15 Michael Clarke Aus 685 45.61 761 v Ind at Melbourne 2007
16 Sachin Tendulkar Ind 683 54.30 898 v Zim at Nagpur 2002
17 AB de Villiers SA 679 ! 41.61 679 v Eng at The Oval 2008
18 Andrew Symonds Aus 672* 44.65 718 v WI at Antigua 2008
19 Gautam Gambhir Ind 663* 44.39 670 v Aus at Delhi 2008
20= R Sarwan WI 659 40.40 697 v Eng at Old Trafford 2004
Ashwell Prince SA 659 42.23 756 v Pak at Centurion 2007
Bowlers
Rank Player Team Points Ave Econ HS Rating
1 M Muralidaran SL 895 21.96 920 v Ban at Kandy 2007
2 Dale Steyn SA 847 22.51 897 v Ind at Ahmedabad 2008
3 Stuart Clark Aus 821* 22.89 863 v WI at Bridgetown 2008
4 Makhaya Ntini SA 760 28.22 863 v Ind at Durban 2006
5= Brett Lee Aus 738 30.44 811 v WI at Antigua 2008
Ryan Sidebottom Eng 738* 25.68 769 v SA at Lord's 2008
7 Harbhajan Singh Ind 688 30.77 765 v NZ at Wellington 2002
8= Chaminda Vaas SL 684 29.31 800 v Ind at Chennai 2005
Shoaib Akhtar Pak 684 25.69 855 v NZ at Wellington 2003
10 Shane Bond NZ 654* 22.39 778 v WI at Auckland 2006
11 Monty Panesar Eng 653 31.95 721 v WI at Chester-le-St 2007
12 Daniel Vettori NZ 647 33.39 681 v Aus at Auckland 2000
13 Jerome Taylor WI 628*! 34.69 628 v Aus at Bridgetown 2008
14 James Anderson Eng 620 ! 34.51 620 v SA at The Oval 2008
15 Mohammad Asif Pak 619* 23.13 710 v SA at Cape Town 2007
16 Andrew Flintoff Eng 615 32.21 810 v Pak at Multan 2005
17 Danish Kaneria Pak 614 33.90 723 v Eng at Multan 2005
18 Zaheer Khan Ind 599 34.59 689 v Pak at Delhi 2007
19 Anil Kumble Ind 596 29.66 859 v SL at Bangalore 1994
20 M Hoggard Eng 593 30.50 795 v SL at Edgbaston 2006
All-rounders
Rank Player Team Points HS Rating
1 Jacques Kallis SA 458 616 v Pak at Durban 2002
2 Daniel Vettori NZ 369! 369 v Ban at Dhaka 2008
3 Andrew Flintoff Eng 302 501 v Pak at Multan 2005
4 Dwayne Bravo WI 295 /*! 295 v Aus at Bridgetown 2008
5 Chaminda Vaas SL 281 300 v WI at Guyana 2008
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