A rather exciting series between the world's two best sides, South Africa and their visitors Australia, has just ended with the South Africans winning a second successive match to take the series 2-1. This puts them unambiguously on top of my world ratings. The Australians have held this position for most of the past 3 1/2 years; but could this finally be the end for their ageing team? Also this week, the West Indies won a test in Bangladesh. This lifts them above Pakistan in the rankings. The team have spent most of the last two and a half decades in 8th place and the last time they were ahead of Pakistan specifically was in the year 2000. But Pakistan have been on a very poor run recently and with this win, the West Indies move ahead. My ratings look like this:
- South Africa 269 +16
- Australia 237 -17
- New Zealand 190
- India 167
- England 129
- Sri Lanka 12
- West Indies -12 +26
- Pakistan -24
- Bangladesh -84 -26
- Zimbabwe -281
- Ireland -292
- Afghanistan -311
The official ratings, which use a similar (but more opaque) system to mine, also now show South Africa on top:
- South Africa 124 +5
- Australia 123 -3
- New Zealand 106
- India 105
- England 102
- Bangladesh 77
- Sri Lanka 75
- West Indies 74
- Pakistan 71
- Zimbabwe 17
There are a lot of matches scheduled for November, starting with a second test for the West Indies in Bangladesh.
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