Recent Results

1st Test	Pakistan	v	Sri Lanka
Pre-rating	1035.89		1052.15
Form	+8.97		-11.84
Expected Margin	Sri Lanka by 8 runs
Actual Margin	Match Drawn
Post-rating	1038.35		1048.99

For four and a half days Pakistan did nearly everything required to win on a placid pitch. Bowled tightly and induced some poor shots to roll Sri Lanka for 197, batted patiently and in partnerships (each of the first 5 wickets made moe than 75) to compile 511 (Taufeeq Umar 236), and reduced Sri Lanka to 5/233 with a day of effort and some good deliveries. Then they ran into a Sangakarra shaped road-block, who, with by Prasanna Jayawardene put on 20 for the 6th wicket. It was just enough, 10 overs fewer and Pakistan would have fancied the chase. Pakistan's catching didn't help, but Sri Lanka conjured another draw, maintaining, for now, their ranking, but looking increasingly unlikely to take 20 wickets, and increasingly prone to sudden collapse. Pakistan are not immune to either of those (less so the first with the skillful Umar Gul leading the attack), so the series is far from played out, but only one team looks likely to win.

1st Test	Bangladesh	v	West Indies
Pre-rating	617.01		922.70
Form	+11.09		+6.77
Expected Margin	West Indies by 103 runs
Actual Margin	Match Drawn
Post-rating	622.73		921.28

Not often can Bangladesh have been said to dominate an opposition, but they did so here, cruelly denied by two washed out day's play - sadly too, better drainage would have seen almost no play lost. The undoubted hero was Elias Sunny, taking 6/94 in his debut innings to bowl West Indies out for 244. Even that was more than Bangladesh ought to have allowed after they declared at 9/350, but lack of experience dogs their attempts to close out games, and Sammy blasted 58 invaluable runs. The second innings batting was laboured when it needed to be attacking, and the game looked certain to drift towards a draw when Mushfiqur Rahim, on his test captaincy debut, declared again, offering a 226 runs in 37 overs sized carrot. They declined, but not before losing two wickets to Sunny and Shakib (as usual). The West Indies have been terrible since closing out the one day series, and a sharp improvement is needed if they are to prevent successive series losses to a side who might soon start believing they can take their scalp.

Rankings at 26th October 2011
1.	England	1333.15
2.	South Africa	1180.15
3.	Australia	1133.16
4.	India	1111.89
5.	Sri Lanka	1048.99
6.	Pakistan	1038.35
7.	West Indies	921.28
8.	New Zealand	885.38
9.	Bangladesh	622.73
10.	Zimbabwe	553.31
11.	Ireland	559.06
12.	Afghanistan	514.53
13.	Scotland	437.45
14.	Namibia	407.53
15.	Kenya	338.92
16.	U.S.A.	296.99
17.	Uganda	268.44
18.	U.A.E.	219.51
19.	Netherlands	202.55
20.	Nepal	196.51
21.	Canada	154.58
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 26th October, 2011 23:47:24   [#] 

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