Proteas shift to third
NEW ZEALAND have overtaken South Africa to take third place in the ICC Test Team Rankings after completing a 1-0 win over Sri Lanka on Sunday’s final day in their twoTest series.
The home side, which won the second Test in Christchurch by a record 423 runs, reaped the dividends of a fourth consecutive Test series win to finish the year at 107 points.
They started the series with 105 points and could have gone up to 109 points and second place had they won both matches against Sri Lanka.
However, fourth-placed South Africa, who lead 1-0 in an ongoing three-Test series against Pakistan, can reach 110 points and second spot by blanking the opposition.
India, who lead 2-1 after three matches of their four-Test series in Australia, remain at the top of the year-end rankings with 116 points. England are second with 108 points and Australia fifth on 102 points.
Trent Boult and Neil Wagner quickly wrapped up Sri Lanka’s second innings. Boult trapped Dushmantha Chameera in front after only 10 minutes of play on the fifth day, and while the batsman asked for a review third umpire Rod Tucker confirmed the onfield decision two minutes later to bring the match to an end.
With the first match in Wellington ending in a damp draw, Sunday’s victory saw the hosts win a fourth successive test series for the first time.
“A fantastic achievement,” said New Zealand captain Kane Williamson. “It’s exciting, the four series, even if I wasn’t aware of it.
“But it’s a proud achievement because we are playing in different conditions and having to adjust our games.”
The victory was even more impressive given New Zealand had been reduced to 64 for six on the first day, before Tim Southee produced a counter-attacking innings of 68 that pushed their total through to 178.
Southee then blasted the top off Sri Lanka’s reply, reducing them to 21 for three. The performance on the first day earned him man-of-the match honours.
“It was nice to get some runs,” Southee said. “We needed to post some sort of score and try and hang in there ... for as long as we could.
“I guess 170 in the first innings was a good score on that wicket.”
Sri Lanka put up a stronger second innings performance as they sought to either grind out an improbable 660 runs for victory, or bat for more than two days to save the game. Disappointed with the way we batted in the first innings but I’m happy with the way we played in the second innings as we fought hard as a team,” said Sri Lanka captain Dinseh Chandimal.
“We are a young team, but if we can show the same character as Kusal Mendis and Angelo Mathews then we should be able to compete.”
Top-10 world rankings:1 India 1162 England 1083 South Africa 1064 New Zealand 1055 Australia 1026 Sri Lanka 937 Pakistan 928 West Indies 709 Bangladesh 6910 Zimbabwe 11 – ANA