New Zealand eyes second place in Reliance Mobile ICC ODI Championship

South Africa now challenges Australia for number-one ODI spot
New Zealand has maintained its pressure on fourth-placed Pakistan in the Reliance Mobile ICC ODI Championship after winning its rain-marred ODI series against the West Indies. And such is the competitive nature of the rankings, the Black Caps could take second place if they continue their winning ways.

New Zealand won the five-match series 2-1 which has kept it on 113 ratings points, just one point behind Pakistan.

However, if West Indies had won the Napier ODI on Tuesday, New Zealand would have dropped to 109 ratings points which would have made its task of regaining the number-two spot, a position it last held in January 2005, extremely difficult.

With New Zealand set to play 10 ODIs over the next couple of months – five in Australia and five at home against India – it is justified in eyeing second place but to convert that dream into reality, it will have to put up strong performances against two of the best sides in the world.

Two rained-off matches may have denied the Black Caps a chance to leapfrog Pakistan but it can still go past Shoaib Malik’s side in fourth place as early as 21 January if Pakistan ends up on the losing side in the opening game of the three-match ODI series against Sri Lanka in Karachi.

In that scenario, Pakistan would drop to fifth place on 112 ratings points while Sri Lanka would also move ahead of sixth-placed England. However, if Pakistan comes back to beat Sri Lanka 2-1, it will stay in fourth place while Sri Lanka will also remain in seventh place behind England.

Meanwhile, South Africa, after missing an opportunity to replace Australia at the top of the Reliance Mobile ICC Test Championship table, now has a chance to snatch the number-one ODI spot from Ricky Ponting’s side.

But this can only be achieved if Johan Botha’s team wins the series 4-1 or 5-0. In case of a 4-1 series result, both the teams would be tied on 125 points each but the Proteas would be placed higher by a fraction of a point.

If South Africa sweeps the series, it will go top on 128 ratings points while Australia will drop to 122 ratings points.

On the other side of the coin, if Australia wins the series 5-0 South Africa will slip behind India on 114 ratings points. And if Pakistan defeats Sri Lanka 2-1, South Africa will be fourth on the table as Pakistan will occupy third place on 115 ratings points.

These are the potential scenarios coming out of the Australia and South Africa ODI series:

While the ICC Test Championship is only updated at the end of each series, the ICC ODI Championship table is updated after every match.

Reliance Mobile ICC ODI Championship (as of 13 January)