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India, South Africa fight for top place in Rediff ODI rankings

Last updated on: September 18, 2009 21:55 IST
As we go into the Champions Trophy in South Africa, both India (69.53) and South Africa (69.97) are vying for the top place in the Rediff ODI Rankings. England (43.90) and New Zealand (50.08) are the big losers with bad losses in the NatWest Series and the Compaq Cup respectively.

Table A shows the current ODI rankings.

TABLE A: CURRENT ODI RANKINGS (as on September 18, 2009)
Team WI TI ODI RBI=
WI * 0.80 + TI * 0.20
diff: 14.8.09 -> 18.9.09 Ranking
South Africa 62.46 100.00 69.97 +5.31 1
India 61.91 100.00 69.53 +0.97 2
Australia 67.60 50.00 64.08 +1.73 3
Sri Lanka 48.17 75.00 53.54 -1.22 4
New Zealand 52.18 41.67 50.08 -6.41 5
Pakistan 49.47 25.00 44.58 -0.05 6
England 42.37 50.00 43.90 -8.45 7
West Indies 36.50 0.00 29.20 -0.22 8
Bangladesh 16.79 57.14 24.86 +2.84 9
Zimbabwe 13.47 0.00 10.78 -0.95 10

The corresponding Reliance Mobile ICC ODI rankings (as on September 18, 2009) are Australia (127), South Africa (127), India (126), Pakistan (109), Sri Lanka (108), New Zealand (105), England (102), West Indies (78), Bangladesh (55) and Zimbabwe (26).

Details

The Rediff ODI rating, now published regularly for almost eight years, is a judicious combination of every team's weighted index (WI) and tournament index (TI).

The WI, based on recent ODI encounters between every pair of teams as shown in Table B, is essentially a weighted average that considers the 'opposition strength' (because wins against strong opponents must be rewarded more) and the 'home-away-neutral' factors (because teams usually win more at home, and lose more playing 'away').

The TI factors in a team's performance in tournaments and series (and thereby seeks to better reward wins in 'big' matches). The TI is currently based on a time window spanning the last 12 months, i.e. October 2008 to September 2009. South Africa rose by over 5 points because their defeat to England over a year ago has now gone out of the window.

Australia are third chiefly because their series win record in the 12 months is not good enough (see Table C). A win the Champions Trophy could catapult them back to the top place; by the same count, India and South Africa could crash if they fail to make the semi-finals or even the final.

TABLE B: ODI SCORECARD (as on September 18, 2009; used to compute WI)
 
  Aus Ban Eng Ind NZ Pak RSA SL WI Zim
Australia   H  
  A  
N
    3 / 3 
  3 / 3 
3 / 4
  3 / 6 
  7 / 7 
2 / 2
  2.5/6 
  4.5/7 
1.5 / 2
  2.5/5 
  0 / 3 
2 / 2
  4 / 5 
  0 / 0 
3 / 5
1 / 5
  2 / 5 
2 / 2
3 / 4
  3 / 5 
4 / 4
  2.5/3 
5 / 5
3 / 5
  3.5/4 
4 / 4
0 / 0
Bangladesh   H  
  A  
N
  0 / 3  
  0 / 3 
1 / 4
    0 / 3 
  0 / 3 
0 / 1
  0 / 3 
0 / 0
1 / 3
  0 / 3 
  0 / 3 
0 / 3
  0 / 4 
0 / 6
0 / 2
  0 / 3 
  0 / 2 
1 / 2
  1 / 3 
  0 / 3 
0 / 4
  0.5/3 
  3 / 3 
0 / 2
  2 / 4 
  4 / 5 
1 / 1
England   H  
  A  
N
  0 /7 
  3 / 6 
0 / 2
  3 / 3 
  3 / 3 
1 / 1
    4 / 7 
0 / 5
0 / 2
  1.5/5 
  1.5/5 
2 / 5
  2.5/5 
2 / 5
1 / 1
  4 / 4 
  2 / 7 
0 / 1
  0 / 5 
  3 / 5 
3 / 5
  2 / 2 
  3/5 
1 / 1
  1.5/3 
  4 / 4 
1 / 1
India   H  
  A  
N
  2.5/7 
  3.5/6 
0.5 / 2
  0 / 0 
  3 / 3 
2 / 3
  5/ 5 
  3 / 7 
2 / 2
    1.5/3 
  3.5/5 
1 / 1
  3 / 5 
  5 / 7 
2 / 4
  2 / 4 
0 / 4
2 / 3
  2 / 3 
  5 / 7 
3.5/ 6
  3 / 5 
  2.5 / 4 
3 / 4
  3 / 5 
  2 / 2 
4 / 4
New Zealand   H  
  A  
N
  3 / 3 
  2.5/5 
0 / 2
3 / 3
  3 / 3 
3 / 3
3.5/5
  3.5/5 
3 / 5
 1.5/5  
  1.5/3 
0 / 1
    4 / 5 
  0 / 5 
1 / 1
  5 / 6 
  1/3 
2 / 2
  2/4  
  0 / 1 
0 / 2
  3 / 5 
  2.5/6 
3 / 4
  1 / 3 
  2 / 2 
1 / 1
Pakistan   H  
  A  
N
  0 / 0 
  1 / 5 
2 / 5
  6 / 6 
  4 / 4 
2 / 2
  3 / 5 
  2.5/5 
0 / 1
  2 / 7 
  2 / 5 
2 / 4
  5 / 5 
  1 / 5 
0 / 1
    2 / 5 
  1 / 4 
0 / 1
  1 / 3 
  2/5 
2 / 3
3 / 4
3 / 4
3 / 3
  5 / 5 
  5 / 5 
3 / 3
South Africa   H  
  A  
N
  3 /5 
4 / 5
0 / 2
  2 /2 
3 / 3
1 / 2
5 / 7
  0 / 4 
1 / 1
4 / 4
  2/ 4 
1 / 3
  2/3 
  1 / 6 
0 / 2
  3 / 4 
  3 / 5 
1 / 1
    4.5/6 
  0 / 5 
4 / 6
5/5
  6 / 6 
0 / 1
  3 / 3 
  3 / 3 
3 / 3
Sri Lanka   H  
  A  
N
  2 / 5 
  1 / 4 
0 / 4
  3 / 3 
  2 / 3 
4 / 4
  2 / 5 
  5 / 5 
2 / 5
  2 / 7 
  1 / 3 
2.5 / 6
  1 / 1 
  2 / 4 
2 / 2
  3/5 
  2 / 3 
1 / 3
  5 / 5 
  1.5/6 
2 / 6
    1 / 2 
  0.5/3 
1 / 1
  2 / 2 
  5 / 5 
2 / 2
West Indies   H  
  A  
N
0 / 5
  0.5/3 
2 / 5
0 / 3
  2.5/3 
2 / 2
  2/5 
  0 / 2 
0 / 1
  1.5 / 4 
  2 / 5 
1 / 4
  3.5/6 
  2 / 5 
1 / 4
1 / 4
1 / 4
0 / 3
  0 / 6 
0/5
1 / 1
  2.5/3 
 1 / 2 
0 / 1
    6.5/7 
  3 / 4 
1 / 1
Zimbabwe   H  
  A  
N
  0 / 4 
  0.5/4 
0 / 0
  1 / 5 
  2 / 4 
0 / 1
  0 / 4 
  1.5/3 
0 / 1
  0 / 2 
  2 / 5 
0 / 4
  0 / 2 
  2 / 3 
0 / 1
  0 / 5 
  0 / 5 
0 / 3
  0 / 3 
  0 / 3 
0 / 3
  0 / 5 
  0 / 2 
0 / 2
  1 / 4 
  0.5/7 
0 / 1
 

In this update, we are pretending that Australia will make a clean sweep of the ODI series in England. Even if England win the last ODI of the 7-match series, the change in the rankings will be very marginal.

Our next update will appear after the Champions Trophy starting next week in South Africa.

M J Manohar Rao and Srinivas Bhogle