POSTED: Thursday May 21st 2009
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Chance for England to narrow gap with Pakistan
Gayle and Chanderpaul challenge Dhoni for number-one batting spot while Broad can become England’s highest-ranked bowler.
After swapping places with Pakistan in the Reliance Mobile ICC Test Championship table, England has a chance to put more pressure on the Asian side in the ODI version when it goes head-to-head with the West Indies in the three-match series starting in Leeds on Thursday.
England currently sits in sixth place on 108 ratings points and trails Pakistan by three. However, if it sweeps the series it will gain two ratings points which will put it on 110, just one behind Pakistan.
But if the West Indies wins all three matches of the series, Andrew Strauss’s side will plummet to seventh place, two points behind Sri Lanka. Chris Gayle’s side, in this scenario, would gain six rating points up to 98 in eighth place.
A 2-1 result in England’s favour would not change the points table but if the result was reversed, England would join Sri Lanka on 105 rating points but would stay ahead of Kumar Sangakkara’s side by a fraction of a point, while the West Indies would rise to 95 rating points.
In the Reliance Mobile ICC Player Rakings for ODI batsmen, India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni may lose his number-one position if Gayle and Shivnarine Chanderpaul fire in the series.
Dhoni is currently the only batsman above the 800-point mark but Gayle is not too far behind as he trails the Indian by 33 points. Chanderpaul is another four points behind which means the order could potentially change with a couple of strong performances by the two West Indies stalwarts.
However, the failure of the pair to maintain their very high standards would directly benefit fourth-placed Yuvraj Singh of India and Australia’s Michael Hussey in fifth position who are waiting to pounce on any opportunity that comes their way.
Gayle occupied the number-one spot for a couple of weeks in January this year before Dhoni regained the coveted top position after strong performances against South Africa. Gayle had first surged to the top of the rankings in April 2004 after an ODI against England in Guyana.
Chanderpaul, despite having led the Test batting chart, has never gone top of the ODI ranking and his current number-three position is the best he has achieved to date. This can serve as an extra incentive for the Guyanese batsman who won the player of the year for 2008 at the LG ICC Awards.
Besides Gayle and Chanderpaul, Ramnaresh Sarwan in 16th position is the third West Indies batsmen in the top 20 and he will be eyeing an upward movement.
For England, former captain Kevin Pietersen in 14th place is the only home team batsman in the top 20 and he has the potential to return to the top 10 if he manages to put up a couple of good performances in the series.
In the Reliance Mobile ICC Player Rankings for ODI bowlers, fast bowler Stuart Broad is well placed to become his country’s highest-ranked bowler. The 22-year-old is currently in 13th spot while Andrew Flintoff is in ninth place.
Flintoff must sit out the series due to injury which means he will lose one per cent of his ratings for every match missed so Broad can overtake the Lancastrian and can also return to the top 10 after dropping out earlier this year. Broad’s highest ranking to date is the third position he achieved an ODI against South Africa at the Oval last year.
Jerome Taylor (in 14th place) is the only West Indies bowler in the top 20 while Dwayne Bravo (33rd), Fidel Edwards (44th) and Gayle (81st) will be aiming for an upward movement.
The bowling table is headed by Sri Lanka’s Nuwan Kulasekara while Kyle Mills of New Zealand is second and Muttiah Muralidaran of Sri Lanka third.
Upcoming fixtures:
21 May – First ODI, Leeds
24 May – Second ODI, Bristol
26 May – Third ODI, Birmingham
Reliance Mobile ICC ODI Championship table (as on 20 May 2009)
Rank Team Ranking
1 South Africa 126
2 Australia 122
3 India 122
4 New Zealand 112
5 Pakistan 111
6 England 108
7 Sri Lanka 105
8 West Indies 92
9 Bangladesh 46
10 Zimbabwe 23
11 Ireland 19
12 Kenya 0
(Developed by David Kendix)
To see what upcoming results will do to the Reliance Mobile ICC ODI Championship table go to http://icc-cricket.yahoo.com/rankings/iccrankingpredictor/predictor-odi.html
Reliance Mobile ICC ODI Player Rankings (as on 20 May 2009)
Batsmen
Rank Player Team Pts Ave HS Rating
1 MS Dhoni Ind 815 49.26 825 v NZ at Hamilton 2009
2 Chris Gayle WI 782 40.32 804 v Aus at Mumbai 2006
3 S.Chanderpaul WI 778 41.54 793 v Eng at Guyana 2009
4 Yuvraj Singh Ind 769 37.43 790 v SL at Colombo (RPS) 2009
5 Mike Hussey Aus 767 54.65 863 v NZ at Perth 2007
6 AB de Villiers SA 752 38.88 753 v Aus at Port Elizabeth 2009
7 Virender Sehwag Ind 747 34.32 774 v NZ at Auckland 2003
8 Graeme Smith SA 731 40.39 792 v Ban at Dhaka 2008
9 Herschelle Gibbs SA 712 36.37 750 v SL at Durban 2003
10 Jacques Kallis SA 707 45.30 816 v WI at Johannesburg 2004
11 Michael Clarke Aus 705 42.50 756 v SL at Melbourne 2008
12 Kumar Sangakkara SL 704 36.33 760 v Ind at Rajkot 2007
13 Sachin Tendulkar Ind 703 44.37 887 v Zim at Sharjah 1998
14 Kevin Pietersen Eng 699 46.67 834 v Aus at Antigua 2007
15 Mohammad Yousuf Pak 698 43.19 777 v SA at Rawalpindi 2003
16 Ramnaresh Sarwan WI 686 43.70 798 v Ind at St Kitts 2006
17 Gautam Gambhir Ind 685 38.43 713 v SL at Colombo (RPS) 2009
18 Ricky Ponting Aus 680 42.52 832 v NZ at Hobart 2007
19 Shoaib Malik Pak 668 35.30 690 v WI at Abu Dhabi 2008
20 Sanath Jayasuriya SL 664 32.71 838 v Ban at Pietermaritzburg 2003
Bowlers
Rank Player Team Pts Ave HS Rating
1 Nuwan Kulasekara SL 724 4.41 749 v Pak at Lahore 2009
2 Kyle Mills NZ 697 4.68 723 v Aus at Melbourne 2009
3 Muttiah Muralidaran SL 696 3.89 913 v NZ at Sharjah 2002
4 Daniel Vettori NZ 694 4.17 790 v Eng at Christchurch 2008
5 Shakib Al Hasan Ban 687! 4.02 687 v Zim at Dhaka 2009
6 Nathan Bracken Aus 677 4.41 806 v SL at St George’s 2007
7 Mitchell Johnson Aus 672 4.85 726 v Ban at Darwin 2008
8 Mashrafe Mortaza Ban 671 4.57 678 v Ind at Port-of-Spain 2007
9 Andrew Flintoff Eng 663 4.39 755 v Ban at Dhaka 2003
10 Shahid Afridi Pak 660 4.61 685 v Ind at Dhaka 2008
11= Ajantha Mendis SL 655* 3.94 660 v Ind at Colombo (RPS) 2009
Johan Botha SA 655 4.43 664 v Aus at Centurion 2009
13 Stuart Broad Eng 653 5.03 701 v SA at Trent Bridge 2008
14= Jerome Taylor WI 644 4.67 688 v SA at Cape Town 2008
James Hopes Aus 644 4.33 665 v Pak at Dubai 2009
16 Zaheer Khan Ind 643 4.86 700 v SA at Dhaka 2003
17 Jacob Oram NZ 626 4.41 768 v Aus at The Oval 2004
18 Chaminda Vaas SL 620 4.18 861 v SA at Colombo (RPS) 2004
19= Daren Powell WI 618 4.71 686 v Aus at St George’s 2008
Umar Gul Pak 618 4.93 640 v SL at Lahore 2009
All-rounders
Rank Player Team Pts HS Rating
1 Shakib Al Hasan Ban 403! 403 v Zim at Dhaka 2009
2 Andrew Flintoff Eng 353 544 v SL at The Rose Bowl 2004
3 Yuvraj Singh Ind 340 348 v NZ at Hamilton 2009
4= Shahid Afridi Pak 337 360 v Ind at Dhaka 2008
Shoaib Malik Pak 337 402 v WI at Brisbane 2005
*Indicates a provisional rating
! Indicates career-best rating
For more information on the ICC Player Rankings go to: www.reliancemobileiccrankings.com
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Keywords · Andrew Strauss · Chris Gayle · Kumar Sangakkara · Mehendra Singh Dhoni · Shivnarine Chanderpaul · Reliance Mobile ICC Test Championship
Name: Sami Ul Hasan
Organization: ICC
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