Zimbabwe won their first match away from home for 15 years when they played Bangladesh earlier this month. But the home side have since won the second test match, drawing the series. England, meanwhile, have managed to win two on the trot in Sri Lanka, guaranteeing a series win with one more to play. The most interesting recent match, however, was Pakistan's first game in New Zealand, in which the visitors held the whip hand for most of the game but succumbed at the end by just four runs, the 5th closest test match in history. The net effect of these games on my cricket world ratings is as follows. The most striking feature is England's ascendency. Well beaten in the Ashes, and defeated in their first home test of the summer, England now stand 7-1 in their last eight games, including a 4-1 series win over highly rated India, and now two away victories. They may not be a great team, yet, but it's not unambiguously clear who is really stronger than them right now.
England 201 +24
India 183
South Africa 175
New Zealand 149 +15
Australia 129
Sri Lanka 107 -23
Pakistan 98 -15
West Indies 1
Bangladesh -119 +10
Zimbabwe -252 -9
Ireland -319
Afghanistan -351
The official ratings, meanwhile, look like this:
India 116
South Africa 106
England 105
New Zealand 102
Australia 102
Sri Lanka 97
Pakistan 95
West Indies 76
Bangladesh 67
Zimbabwe 2
The Bangladesh-Zimbabwe series, has, interestingly made no difference at all to the previous scores. The other series are not yet complete and will only impact upon the ratings when they're done.
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