Proteas close in on ODI top spot

Michael Owen-smith|Published 18 years ago

South Africa's "Perfect 10" performance that saw them shatter Pakistan by 10 wickets with 36 overs to spare at Newlands on Sunday has set them up to challenge Australia for the No 1 world ranking at next month's World Cup.

Sunday's result, coupled with Australia's stunning 2-0 defeat against England in the final of their own triangular series down under, means that South Africa are now only three points behind the world champions in the official ODI rankings.

Should the Proteas complete a 3-1 series win over Pakistan at the Wanderers on Wednesday evening - a result that seems very much on the cards after Sunday's humiliation, the gap will close to only two points.

Australia have a three-match series to play in New Zealand before they go to the World Cup. Under normal circumstances that would not be a huge concern for them but they will be travelling to their Tasman Sea rivals with a weakened side that does not include either Ricky Ponting or Adam Gilchrist and that will be led by Michael Hussey.

Australia and South Africa have been grouped in the same preliminary round pool at the World Cup and, although both are virtually certain to progress to the Super 8 round - the other pool members are minnows Holland and Scotland - their early showdown at Warner Park on the island of St Kitts on March 24 will in all probability be for the world No 1 ranking as well.

South Africa captain Graeme Smith on Sunday expressed his satisfaction of the state of his team heading into the World Cup. "I am very happy with where we are and the team has a very settled feel about it. There are still one or two things we want to improve or to tweak a little bit but I couldn't have asked for a more perfect performance from the team than they gave (Sunday).

Man of the-match Shaun Pollock admitted that South Africa had had the better of the conditions by bowling first but felt that that advantage had only lasted for "the first eight or nine overs."

Pakistan captain Inzamam-ul-Haq agreed. "It wasn't easy at the start but we batted poorly. We should have been capable of posting a total of 230 or 240."