ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: Pakistan has a nine-point advantage over ninth-ranked West Indies on the MRF Tyres ICC ODI Team Rankings which can prove decisive since England plus the next seven highest-ranked sides as on September 30, 2017 will qualify automatically for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019.
South Africa and Australia have retained the top two positions on the ODI Team Rankings following the May 1 annual update, an International Cricket Council (ICC) press release said.
The annual update is carried out to ensure the table continues to reflect teams’ recent form with older results being discarded. As such, the table now reflects all matches from May 1, 2014, with matches played from May 1, 2016 carrying 100 per cent weighting.
Both Pakistan and ninth-ranked West Indies have dropped points.
Following the update, Pakistan slipped from 90 points to 88 points and the West Indies from 83 points to 79 points. However, Pakistan’s pre-update seven-point gap has extended to nine points. Seventh-ranked Bangladesh and sixth-ranked Sri Lanka have also conceded points.
Meanwhile, number-one ranked South Africa has gained four points and is now on 123 points, while the world champion and second-ranked Australia has stayed on 118 points.
India, which will defend the ICC Champions Trophy title in the United Kingdom in June, has swapped places with World Cup 2015 finalist New Zealand.
Both sides have gained points following the update but India’s five-point gain against New Zealand’s increase of three means India is now ranked third with 117 points and New Zealand is fourth with 115 points.
England, which will host the ICC Champions Trophy 2017 and the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019, has retained its fifth ranking but has moved up by one point to 109.
There is no change to 10th-ranked Afghanistan’s tally of 52 points, but 11th-ranked Zimbabwe has dropped two points and is now on 46 points. Ireland has gained one point and is on 43 points.
Source: APP/DND
