ODI

India Is No.1 In ODI Rankings

February 14, 2018 Happenings

Close on the heels of a remarkable world cup campaign by the U-19s, India has now toppled South Africa to take the no.1 spot in the latest ICC ODI Championship rankings which happened after they beat the Proteas by 73 runs in the 5th ODI at Port Elizabeth on Feb-13. India is also the top-ranked team in test cricket today.

The Indians have outclassed the opposition in 9 consecutive ODI bilateral series and are on a roll in the shorter format of the game at this point. Under Kohli’s captaincy, this team has won their first ever bilateral ODI series against South Africa which they’re leading 4-1 with one more match to be played. In their current form, I would have to admit they’re my favourite team to win the 2019 World Cup to be held in England & Wales provided they’d have sorted out their middle-order batting woes by then. Ironically, their next ODI series is in July versus England and it’d be interesting to watch the spinners perform in English conditions.

Here’s a list of India’s successive ODI bilateral series Wins from June 2016 to present Feb 2018:

[perfectpullquote align=”right” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]

  • Vs Zimbabwe – 3-0 in Zimbabwe
  • Vs New Zealand – 3-2 in India
  • Vs England – 2-1 in India
  • Vs West Indies – 3-1 in West Indies
  • Vs Sri Lanka – 5-0 in Sri Lanka
  • Vs Australia – 4-1 in India
  • Vs New Zealand – 2-1 in India
  • Vs Sri Lanka – 2-1 in India
  • Vs South Africa – 5-1 in South Africa (1 match to go)

[/perfectpullquote]

West Indies had the most consecutive bilateral series wins of 14 between May 1980 – March 1988 so I am hoping we continue to win more matches!

South Africa clinch a Historic Match

March 12, 2006 General

Exactly a decade ago, during the 1996 cricket world cup, Sri Lanka scored a massive 398 against Kenya in a one day international (ODI) game at their home ground. That score was challenged so many times but never broken and most recently by New Zealand who scored 397 against Zimbabwe. The record was finally crumbled today first by the Aussies who scored a massive 434-4 in their 50 overs and then the South Africans got the better of them by scoring 438-9 chasing and clinching the series.

I always look forward to watching these 2 countries play cricket since the result cannot be predicted so easily. The ranking apart I think they are the best teams in world cricket today. It was Ponting’s day first who scored his highest ODI score of 164 off just 105 balls hitting 9 sixes and one thought that the Aussies always rose to big occasions like this one. At this point the South Africans looked like they had given up already and I never thought they would give a fight back. It was a daunting task to score 435 off just 300 deliveries and we all know the bowling attack of the Aussies.

There are a few parallels which I want to draw from this match particularly with relation to India. This was the same Wanderers (Johannesburg) ground where we played our 2003 world cup finals against Australia. If you recall, the Aussies batted first and made a mockery of us. The bowling attack of Srinath-Khan-Nehra seemed overtly aggressive and gave away too many runs. Srinath in particular was hammered and came back with the most expensive figures for any bowler in a world cup match. In the end the score of 359-4 seemed too much and we lost that game. We lived up to our reputation of losing the BIG matches. This is the same ground and almost the same team playing under captain Ricky Ponting and Smith’s South Africans have blown their heads off. THAT to me is the difference between a good team and a world class team. When the bets are drawn on who wins the 2007 world cup edition, I will put my money on South Africa. As for this new record – they took 10 years to break the old one and this one will take ages to break.

» Teams with Highest ODI scores