Team India now No 1 ODI team

Colombo, Sep 12

It is not official yet. But, for the first time, India on Friday climbed to the number one spot in the International Cricket Council’s one-day rankings. The ICC’s official website, updated after Friday’s match, shows India at the top of the pecking order.

The six-wicket win over New Zealand in the tri-series here powered India past South Africa as the top one-day side in the ICC rankings system introduced seven years ago, in October 2002. The emphatic win over the Kiwis helped India to accumulate 128 ratings points, one more than South Africa’s 127 rating points.

Australia, which has consistently been the top side since the introduction of the ICC rankings system, are in third position with 124 points.

The table reflects results in all one-day internationals played since August 2007. In that period, India have amassed 3,443 points in 27 matches, giving it 127.52 ratings points, while South Africa have 2280 points from 18 matches for a ratings points of 126.67.

But India could slip back from the top position even before the ICC officially acknowledges the position that emerged in the wake of the Friday win. That is because the official announcement of the weekly rankings is due only next week.

Before that happens Dhoni’s boys will be playing two more matches here, both against Sri Lanka. They must win both the matches to stay on top of the charts.
If India lose one of the two remaining matches, they will drop to 126 ratings points and slip back to the second spot before the weekly rankings are announced next week. Worse still, two successive defeats will mean a drop to 123 ratings points which will push India down to the third position, below Australia. But this will also depend on the result of the fourth one-dayer between Australia and England at Lord’s on Saturday.

India meet Sri Lanka in the final league tie of the competition on Saturday, and face the same opposition in the final on Monday.

With Sri Lanka ranked sixth in the one-day table, India stand to lose more rating points if they don’t get the better of the hosts than they will gain in the event of their success over the 1996 World Cup winners.