Sri Lanka climbs to second spot in ODI rankings

Sri Lanka gets past India in the recent ICC ODI rankings and is now the world no.2 team with 118 points. They were able to achieve this feat after their recent series victory over Australia with their fantastic performance in the series. But Australia is still unmoved from their top spot even after a seven match losing streak.

India will have to clean sweep the ODI series against New Zealand to regain their second spot with a 5-0 series win. While a 4-1 series will leave them a bit behind to Sri Lanka. Then they will have a chance in December in a series against West Indies to get back to their second spot.

Sri Lanka would be glad to get to second position with the happiness of winning a series in Australia so it would be a double treat for them. It is time for Australia to start thinking about their top spot as if both the teams will be playing this kind of good cricket then their top spot won’t be safe for long. 

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Kallis helped South Africa to grab series victory over Pakistan

South Africa at last clinched the series victory over Pakistan in the final game of the series, Kallis helped them with their way out in the final and a high scoring game with all the thrill and suspense. 

South Africa failed to win in the two games due to their sloppy fielding and bowling performance but they managed it all well in the final and the high pressure game. Pakistan’s preparations for the final couldn’t be more dramatic while their wicketkeeper went missing on the start of the game which meant that Umar Akmal had to keep the stumps.

South Africa won the toss and elected to bat, Hashim Amla along with Kallis provided them a flawless start which they wanted. Even though their skipper was sent off early in his innings but after that all seemed very much settled, Amla played an aggressive knock on the other hand Kallis was supporting his innings till the time Amla wasn’t dismissed by Shahid Afridi and after that he played the main role in a partnership of 121 runs with De Villiers. While none of the bowler was a trouble for them and they posted a healthy 317 runs on the board with Duminy making a quick-fire half century with sixty-four runs in last five overs along with Botha being handy with the bat as well.

When Pakistan came to bat they were already under pressure of chasing a huge target of 317 but Shahzaib Hasan and Mohammad Hafeez added 81 runs in the opening 12 overs to provide them with their best opening stand in the series so far. When Kallis came to bowl he was struck for 11 runs in his first over but recovered well by taking three wickets in his next three overs and brought Pakistan on back-foot. Later on Pakistan was still playing at around the required rate but the wickets were falling continuously which made it difficult for them and their innings ended in just 44.5 overs with a 260 runs total.

South Africa won with 58 runs and was a very comprehensive win in the end. The series was full of entertainment but Pakistan will have to re-think about their strategies after the series.

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