South Africa gain modestly

South Africa (51.07) have gained marginally after defeating Pakistan (40.49) in the recently-concluded away series. South Africa had won by an identical margin of 3-2 during their previous visit to Pakistan; so there's no significant difference in this update of the Rediff ODI Rankings.

Table A shows the current ODI rankings.

TABLE A: CURRENT ODI RANKINGS (as on October 29, 2007)

Team	WI	TI	ODI RBI= WI * 0.80 + TI * 0.20	Difference 17.10 -->29.10	Ranking
Australia	64.41	87.50	69.03	+0.00	1
South Africa	53.54	41.18	51.07	+0.74	2
New Zealand	51.17	28.13	46.56	+0.00	3
Sri Lanka	48.98	32.35	45.65	+0.00	4
England	45.96	29.41	42.65	+0.00	5
Pakistan	47.49	12.50	40.49	-0.17	6
India	44.02	21.05	39.43	+0.00	7
West Indies	37.40	26.67	35.25	+0.00	8
Bangladesh	11.95	18.75	13.31	+0.00	9
Zimbabwe	12.17	0.00	9.74	+0.00	10

The corresponding LG ICC ODI rankings (as on October 29, 2007) are Australia (128), South Africa (123), New Zealand (114), Pakistan (109), India (109), Sri Lanka (108), England (107), West Indies (102), Bangladesh (48) and Zimbabwe (17).

So, even after losing at home, Pakistan have moved from the sixth to the fourth place in the LG ICC ODI rankings, chiefly because the ICC formula tends to cluster a lot of teams in the middle of the table.

Details

The Rediff ODI rating is obtained by judiciously combining every team's weighted index (WI) and tournament index (TI). Based on the past data, a reasonable ratio to combine the WI and TI appears to be 4:1.

The WI, based on the most recent ODI encounters between every pair of teams as shown in Table B, is essentially a weighted average that considers the 'opposition strength' (because wins against strong opponents must be rewarded more) and the 'home-away-neutral' factors (because, most teams win a lot of matches when they play at home, but lose many more in 'away' encounters).

TABLE B: ODI SCORECARD (as on October 29, 2007; used to compute WI)

			Aus	Ban	Eng	Ind	NZ	Pak	RSA	SL	WI	Zim
	Australia	H     A   N		3 / 3    3 / 3  3 / 4	3 / 6    4 / 7  2 / 2	5 / 6    4.5/7  1.5 / 2	4 / 4    0 / 3  2 / 2	4 / 5    0 / 0  1 / 1	3 / 4   2 / 5  2 / 2	5 / 7   3 / 5  4 / 4	2.5/3  5 / 8 3 / 5	3.5/4  4 / 4 0 / 0
	Bangladesh	H     A   N	0 / 3     0 / 3  1 / 4		0 / 3    0 / 3  0 / 1	0 / 2  0 / 0 1 / 2	0 / 3    0 / 0  0 / 3	0 / 3  0 / 5 0 / 2	0 / 2    0 / 3  1 / 2	1 / 3    0 / 3  0 / 2	0.5/3    0 / 4  0 / 2	5 / 5    5 / 9  1 / 1
	England	H     A   N	3 /7    3 / 6  0 / 2	3 / 3    3 / 3  1 / 1		4 / 7  1 / 7 0 / 2	0 / 2    2 / 5  2 / 5	2.5/5  2 / 5 1 / 1	3 / 4    2 / 7  0 / 1	0 / 5    3 / 5  3 / 5	1 / 3    3.5/6  1 / 1	1.5/3    4 / 4  1 / 1
	India	H     A   N	2.5/7    1 / 6  0.5 / 2	0 / 0    2 / 2  1 / 2	6/ 7    3 / 7  2 / 2		1.5/3    2 / 7  1 / 3	2 / 6    4 / 5  1 / 2	2 / 4  0 / 4 2 / 3	2 / 3    0 / 3  1 / 2	3 / 5    1 / 5  3 / 4	3 / 5    2 / 2  4 / 4
	New Zealand	H     A   N	3 / 3    0 / 4  0 / 2	0 / 0   3 / 3  3 / 3	3 / 5   2 / 2  3 / 5	5 / 7    1.5/3  2 / 3		4 / 5    0 / 5  1 / 1	5 / 6    0.5/5  2 / 2	2/4     0 / 0  0 / 2	4 / 5    2.5/6  3 / 4	1 / 3    2 / 2  1 / 1
	Pakistan	H     A   N	0 / 0    1 / 5  0 / 1	5 / 5    3 / 3  2 / 2	3 / 5    2.5/5  0 / 1	1 / 5    4 / 6  1 / 2	5 / 5    1 / 5  0 / 1		2 / 5    1 / 4  0 / 1	2 / 3    2.5/3  2 / 3	3 / 4 3 / 4 2 / 3	2 / 2    5 / 5  3 / 3
	South Africa	H     A   N	3 /5  1 / 4 2 / 2	3 /3  2 / 2 1 / 2	5 / 7   1 / 4  1 / 1	4 / 4   2/ 4  1 / 3	4.5/5    1 / 6  0 / 2	3 / 4    3 / 5  1 / 1		4.5/6    0 / 5  4 / 6	3.5/5   6 / 6  0 / 1	3 / 3    3 / 3  3 / 3
	Sri Lanka	H     A   N	2 / 5    2 / 7  0 / 4	3 / 3    2 / 3  2 / 2	2 / 5    5 / 5  2 / 5	3 / 3    1 / 3  1 / 2	0 / 0    2 / 4  2 / 2	0.5/3    1 / 3  1 / 3	5 / 5    1.5/6  2 / 6		1 / 2    3 / 4  1 / 1	2 / 2    5 / 5  1 / 1
	West Indies	H     A   N	3 / 8   0.5/3  2 / 5	4 / 4   2.5/3  2 / 2	2.5/6    2 / 3  0 / 1	4 / 5    2 / 5  1 / 4	3.5/6    1 / 5  1 / 4	1 / 4 1 / 4 1 / 3	0 / 6  1.5/5 1 / 1	1 / 4   1 / 2  0 / 1		6.5/7    3 / 5  1 / 1
	Zimbabwe	H     A   N	0 / 4    0.5/4  0 / 0	4 / 9    0 / 5  0 / 1	0 / 4    1.5/3  0 / 1	0 / 2    2 / 5  0 / 4	0 / 2    2 / 3  0 / 1	0 / 5    0 / 2  0 / 3	0 / 3    0 / 3  0 / 3	0 / 5    0 / 2  0 / 1	2 / 5    0.5/7  0 / 1

The TI factors in a team's performance in tournaments and series (and thereby seeks to better reward wins in 'big' matches). The TI is currently based on a time 'window' spanning the period November 2006 to October 2007 (see Table C).

To calculate TI, we give 1 point out of 1 to the winner of a two-team series (0 points out of 1 to the loser), 2 points out of 2 to the winner of a three-team tournament (with 1 point out of 2 to the losing finalist, and 0 points out of 2 to the loser). For the ICC Champions Trophy, the winner gets 4 points out of 4 (the other finalists get suitably lower points) and for the ICC World Cup the winner gets 8 points out of 8.

TABLE C: TOURNAMENT POINTS TALLY (as on October 29, 2007; used to compute TI)

Team

ICC Ch Tr Oct-Nov 06

I vs SA Nov-Dec 06

P vs WI Dec 06

Z vs B Dec 06

SL vs NZ Dec 06-Jan 07

I vs WI Jan 07

CW Series Jan-Feb 07

Z vs B Jan 07

P vs SA Feb 07

I vs SL Feb 07

A vs NZ Feb 07

WC 2007 Mar-Apr 07

I vs B May 07

P vs SL May 07

I vs SA Jun-Jul 07

E vs WI Jul 07

B vs SL Jul 07

SA vs Z Sep 07

NatWest Aug-Sep 07

E vs SL Oct 07

I vs A Sep-Oct 07

P vs SA Oct 07

Score

TI

Australia

4 / 4

1 / 2

0 / 1

8 / 8

1 / 1

14 / 16

87.50

Bangladesh

0 / 4

1 / 1

1 / 1;

1 / 8

0 / 1

0 / 1

3 / 16

18.75

England

0 / 4

2 / 2

1 / 8

0 / 1

1 / 1

1 / 1

5 / 17

29.41

India

0 / 4

0 / 1

1 / 1

1 / 1

0 / 8

1 / 1

1 / 1

0 / 1

0 / 1

4 / 19

21.05

New Zealand

1 / 4

0.5 / 1

0 / 2

1 / 1

2 / 8

4.5 / 16

28.13

Pakistan

0 / 4

1 / 1

0 / 1

0 / 8

1 / 1

0 / 1

2 / 16

12.50

South Africa

1 / 4

1 / 1

1 / 1

2 / 8

0 / 1

1 / 1

1 / 1

7 / 17

31.18

Sri Lanka

0 / 4

0.5 / 1

0 / 1

4 / 8

0 / 1

1 / 1

0 / 1

5.5 / 17

32.35

West Indies

2 / 4

0 / 1

0 / 1

1 / 8

1 / 1

4 / 15

26.67

Zimbabwe

0 / 4

0 / 1

0 / 1

0 / 8

0 / 1

0 / 15

0.00

We now await the outcome of the India-Pakistan series in India.

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