News

Windies, Chanderpaul and Powell on the rise

CMC | 09/07/07

DUBLIN, Ireland - West Indies can add insult to England's injury, if they can clip the wings of all three ICC Associate nations during their week-long trip of Ireland.

West Indies clinched their three-match One-day International series with England 2-1, when they won Saturday's third and deciding match by 93 runs at Nottingham in England.

With all three matches in the upcoming series in Ireland all carrying ODI status, West Indies now have the opportunity to heap further pressure on England with wins over their opponents likely to leapfrog them ahead of England in the ICC ODI Team Rankings.

West Indies have closed the gap on England in the ODI Team Rankings to just one point.

There is also an opportunity for the players from all sides to make moves up the rankings, as Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Daren Powell, two key performers for West Indies in their ODI series win over England, have.

Left-hander Chanderpaul was easily the most prolific batsman in the series with 202 runs at a crazy average of 202.00 which earned him the Man-of-the-Series award.

This has resulted in the former West Indies captain leaping four places up to 13th in the batting rankings which were released on Sunday.

In the bowling, Powell's four wickets for 40 runs at Trent Bridge have catapulted him into the top-20 for the first time.

Powell ended the series with six wickets at 21.83 runs apiece and this was good enough to propel him up 12 places to No.19.

Meantime, Kevin Pietersen has lost his No.1 ranking in the batting in ODIs, after a lean series against West Indies.

He made 42 runs at 14 in the three matches and has been replaced in the top spot by Ricky Ponting, even though Australia have not played since the World Cup.

Pietersen slips to second place, with Mike Hussey in third, but a strong series for him against India in August can lift him back to the head of the list.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni continues his progress up the rankings and is now fifth overall. He has moved past the injured West Indies captain Ramnaresh Sarwan, who was unable to take any part in the series against England.