Jayawardena’s men eye fifth place in ICC Championship table; Vettori returns to summit of Reliance Mobile ICC Player Rankings for ODI bowlers as Mendis breaks into top 20; Shakib reaches third in all-rounder
s’ listSri 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.
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.
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 today (19 January) in Dhaka 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. Murali was not his usual dominant self in Bangladesh, taking four wickets in three matches, while Johnson was not in the Australia ODI squad for the first two matches of the South Africa series.
There is better news, however, for Murali’s spin partner Ajantha Mendis. The winner of Emerging Player of the Year 2008 at the LG ICC Awards has taken another leap and broken into the top 20 for the first time in his career.
His seven wickets, taken at an impressive average of 10.85, have gained him nine places in the rankings to joint-16th position, level with West Indies’ Daren Powell.
Of course, it was a competitive tri-series for host team Bangladesh as the home side beat Sri Lanka on one occasion and almost did so again in the final.
The main beneficiary of Bangladesh’s success was Shakib Al Hasan, who has broken into the top five in the Reliance Mobile ICC Player Rankings for ODI all-rounders. The 21-year-old scored 153 runs in the series at an average of 76.50 and a strike-rate of better than a run a ball while also managing to collect five wickets for 69 runs at an average of 13.80 and an economy-rate of just 2.65.
That effort has gained him three places in the all-rounders’ list, putting him above Jacques Kallis of South Africa and Pakistan’s Shoaib Malik but still behind Jacob Oram of New Zealand in first place and England’s Andrew Flintoff second. He has also moved up 10 places to 34th in the Reliance Mobile ICC Player Rankings for ODI batsmen.
Speaking of the batting rankings, Ricky Ponting has gained one place to sixth in the list while Kallis has gained three places to 13th spot. India’s Sachin Tendulkar is up one place to 11th position.
The news is not so good for Michael Hussey, who drops one place to fourth with Shivnarine Chanderpaul benefiting from his misfortune. Also, Protea Herschelle Gibbs has fallen three places to 18th position.
A notable big mover in the latest batting chart is Australia opener Shaun Marsh, whose innings of 79 and 78 in the first ODIs of the series have earned him 31 places and he now sits in 32nd position, nicely poised for further gains if his impressive form holds.
Upcoming ODI fixtures (to end of January):
19 Jan – Bangladesh v Zimbabwe (ODI), Mirpur
20 Jan – Pakistan v Sri Lanka (ODI), Karachi
21 Jan – Bangladesh v Zimbabwe (ODI), Mirpur
21 Jan – Pakistan v Sri Lanka (ODI), Karachi
23 Jan – Bangladesh v Zimbabwe (ODI), Mirpur
23 Jan – Australia v South Africa (ODI), Sydney
24 Jan – Pakistan v Sri Lanka (ODI), Lahore
26 Jan – Australia v South Africa (ODI), Adelaide
27 Jan – Kenya v Zimbabwe (ODI), Mombasa
28 Jan – Sri Lanka v India (ODI), Dambulla
29 Jan – Kenya v Zimbabwe (ODI), Mombasa
30 Jan – Australia v South Africa (ODI), Perth
30 Jan – Sri Lanka v India (ODI), Dambulla
31 Jan – Kenya v Zimbabwe (ODI), Nairobi
Reliance Mobile ICC ODI Championship (as of 19 January)
Rank Team Rating
1 Australia 130
2 South Africa 120
3 India 119
4 Pakistan 114
5 New Zealand 113
6 England 108
7 Sri Lanka 105
8 West Indies 91
9 Bangladesh 47
10 Ireland 19
11 Zimbabwe 16
12 Kenya 11
ICC One-Day Rankings (as of 19 January 2009)
Batsmen
Rank (+/-) Player Team Points Ave HS Rating
1 ( - ) Chris Gayle WI 783 40.63 804 v Aus at Mumbai 2006
2 ( - ) MS Dhoni Ind 779 46.84 806 v WI at Kingston 2006
3 (+1) S.Chanderpaul WI 769 ! 41.14 769 v NZ at Napier 2009
4 (-1) Mike Hussey Aus 757 55.35 863 v NZ at Perth 2007
5 ( - ) Graeme Smith SA 752 40.88 792 v Ban at Dhaka 2008
6 (+1) Ricky Ponting Aus 750 43.33 832 v NZ at Hobart 2007
7 (-1) Yuvraj Singh Ind 744 37.16 754 v Eng at Bangalore 2008
8 ( - ) Kevin Pietersen Eng 730 48.36 834 v Aus at Antigua 2007
9 ( - ) Mohd Yousuf Pak 727 43.19 777 v SA at Rawalpindi 2003
10 ( - ) Andrew Symonds Aus 712 40.34 778 v Ind at Nagpur 2007
11 (+1) Sachin Tendulkar Ind 708 44.26 887 v Zim at Sharjah 1998
12 (+1) R Sarwan WI 696 44.17 798 v Ind at St Kitts 2006
13 (+3) Jacques Kallis SA 695 45.38 816 v WI at Johannesburg 2004
14 ( - ) AB de Villiers SA 690 36.52 733 v Ban at Dhaka 2008
15 (+2) K Sangakkara SL 678 35.84 760 v Ind at Rajkot 2007
16 (+3) Shoaib Malik Pak 674 35.61 690 v WI at Abu Dhabi 2008
17 (+3) Yunus Khan Pak 673 ! 34.50 673 v WI at Abu Dhabi 2008
18 (-3) Herschelle Gibbs SA 672 36.03 750 v SL at Durban 2003
19 (-2) Michael Clarke Aus 667 42.22 756 v SL at Melbourne 2008
20 (+1) Virender Sehwag Ind 665 33.27 774 v NZ at Auckland 2003
Bowlers
Rank (+/-) Player Team Points Ave Econ HS Rating
1 (+1) Daniel Vettori NZ 754 31.74 4.16 790 v Eng at Christchurch 2008
2 (-1) Nathan Bracken Aus 737 22.31 4.33 806 v SL at St George's 2007
3 (+2) Kyle Mills NZ 704 25.90 4.62 713 v WI at Wellington 2009
4 (-1) M Muralidaran SL 703 22.66 3.87 913 v NZ at Sharjah 2002
5 (-1) Mitchell Johnson Aus 700 23.46 4.72 726 v Ban at Darwin 2008
6 ( - ) N Kulasekara SL 699*! 26.26 4.24 699 v Ban at Dhaka 2009
7= ( - ) Stuart Broad Eng 673 27.58 4.94 701 v SA at Trent Bridge 2008 ( - ) Sohail Tanvir Pak 673*! 26.00 4.81 673 v WI at Abu Dhabi 2008 9 ( - ) Andrew Flintoff Eng 662 24.69 4.38 755 v Ban at Dhaka 2003
10= ( - ) Jerome Taylor WI 660 26.26 4.67 688 v SA at Cape Town 2008
( - ) Zaheer Khan Ind 660 28.63 4.84 700 v SA at Dhaka 2003
12 ( - ) Brett Lee Aus 650 22.96 4.71 853 v SA at Melbourne 2006
13= ( - ) Chaminda Vaas SL 645 27.54 4.18 861 v SA at Colombo (RPS) 2004
(+1) Jacob Oram NZ 645 30.25 4.38 768 v Aus at The Oval 2004
15 ( - ) Shahid Afridi Pak 644 35.04 4.63 685 v Ind at Dhaka 2008
16= (+1) Daren Powell WI 636 31.60 4.70 686 v Aus at St George's 2008
(+9) Ajantha Mendis SL 636*! 10.21 3.57 636 v Ban at Dhaka 2009
18 (-2) Andre Nel SA 632 27.68 4.63 685 v Ban at Dhaka 2008
19= ( - ) Iftikhar Anjum Pak 626 31.53 4.90 632 v Ban at Karachi 2008
(-1) Stuart Clark Aus 626* 27.82 4.90 632 v Ban at Darwin 2008
All-rounders
Rank (+/-) Player Team Points HS Rating
1 ( - ) Jacob Oram NZ 368 383 v WI at Queenstown 2008
2 ( - ) Andrew Flintoff Eng 366 544 v SL at The Rose Bowl 2004
3 (+3) Shakib Al Hasan Ban 361! 361 v SL at Dhaka 2009
4= (+1) Jacques Kallis SA 342 505 v WI at Bridgetown 2001
(-1) Shoaib Malik Pak 342 402 v WI at Brisbane 2005
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