The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : India set to move up

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Dec 16, 2005

Sport

Sport - Cricket

India set to move up

Dubai: After winning the Delhi Test against Sri Lanka, Team India will go into the final match in Ahmedabad eyeing a 2-0 series win which would fetch it the second place, besides reducing the gap with leader Australia in the LG ICC Test Championship table.

India will then have 115 points ahead of current second-place holder England, which is now having 113 points, behind Australia (128 points).

And with South Africa's help, it can cut Australia's lead to single digits.

If the South Africans manage an unlikely 1-0 or 2-1 win against Australia in the Test series, it would drop Australia's points haul to 124, just nine clear of India.

Such a win would also lift South Africa into fourth place in the table ahead of Pakistan with 106 points.

Anil Kumble's ten-wicket haul against Sri Lanka has helped him move up five places to No. 5 as India's leading bowler in the ICC rankings.

Irfan Pathan, at No. 10, is the other Indian bowler in the top ten. Muttiah Muralitharan has slipped one spot to third, behind Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne, while Chaminda Vaas is down four places to eighth.

Pathan's 93 in the second innings at Ferozeshah Kotla, his highest Test score yet, has helped him move up six places in the all-rounders' table to seventh spot.

Team rankings: (read as position, team, rating): 1. Australia 128; 2. England 113; 3. India 112; 4. Pakistan 103; 5. South Africa 100; 6. New Zealand 100; 7. Sri Lanka 99; 8. West Indies 73; 9. Zimbabwe 27; 10. Bangladesh 5. — Agencies

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Sport