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3rd Test	England	v	Pakistan
Pre-rating	1151.72		1042.10
Form	+29.63		-39.80
Expected Margin	England by 105 runs
Actual Margin	Pakistan by 4 wickets
Post-rating	1141.86		1055.72

It's amazing what taking a few catches can do for a side. Pakistan retain the frailties of a sickly youth, repeatedly letting England crawl back into the game they dominated from the time Wahab Riaz ripped through the English top-order in his first spell in test cricket. Another gritty innings by Prior, and a (somewhat) fortunate hundred by Cook kept England in the game, but they had little support. Yet, in imperfect batting conditions, England's bowlers and Pakistan's weakness with the bat - overly reliant on an extremely rusty Yousuf to keep things steady - combined to give the game a tense finish. An improved performance by England ought to see them to a 3-1 victory, but you can never completely write off Pakistan, not with the bowling line-up they possess (surely the best test cirkcet has to offer right now). Here's hoping too, that at some point in their six test English jaunt Umar Akmal decides to show.

Rankings at 25th August 2010
1.	Australia	1220.57
2.	India	1204.58
3.	South Africa	1193.34
4.	England	1141.86
5.	Sri Lanka	1109.33
6.	Pakistan	1055.72
7.	West Indies	919.14
8.	New Zealand	917.91
9.	Bangladesh	638.24
10.	Zimbabwe	556.79
11.	Ireland	556.64
12.	Scotland	461.60
13.	Afghanistan	404.44
14.	Namibia	378.09
15.	Kenya	351.46
16.	U.S.A.	296.99
17.	Uganda	280.48
18.	Nepal	196.51
19.	Netherlands	195.69
20.	U.A.E.	182.53
21.	Canada	177.28
22.	Hong Kong	148.65
23.	Cayman Is	134.24
24.	Malaysia	123.90
25.	Bermuda	105.40

Shaded teams have played fewer than 2 games per season. Non-test team ratings are not comparable to test ratings as they don't play each other.

Cricket - Ratings - Test 27th August, 2010 00:39:08   [#] 

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