Lack of consistency in ODIs may affect rankings: http://www.senore.com/Cricket/MJ-Clarke-c1978 – Cricket News Update
Following their 0-4 defeat to England in the recently wrapped up ODI tour of England, skipper Michael Clarke has admitted that the team’s performances in the shorter formahttp://www.senore.com/Cricket/Thomas-George-Burrows-c93472 of the game haven’t been up to par, which could prove a threat to their top spot on the ICC’s ODI rankings.
“Our one-day cricket hasn't been as consistent as it needs to be if we want to stay at the top of the table,” he said, adding that there was now very little gap in between the top four spots on the points table, in terms of ranking points. “We've got a lot of work to do as a one-day team.”
The Poms only let up on their visitors during the 3rd ODI of the series, which was abandoned due to rain. Otherwise, the tourists were continually thrashed, unable to win even a single match, and the final ODI, which http://www.senore.com/Cricket/England-c56013 won by 7 wickets at Manchester on July 10, saw the series culminating in a humiliating whitewash.
Australia are currently placed at number one on the http://www.senore.com/Cricket/South-Africa-c757 (at number 2) and England (at number 3) – both of whom have a rating of 118. India, meanwhile, at the fourth spot on the table, have a rating of 117.
Reflecting on the worst loss suffered in a bilateral series by an Australian ODI team in the 41-year history of the format, incidentally also the first series defeat the team has seen since http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Clarke-c51120 took over as captain, the 31-year-old observed that the team’s performance did not come as a shock, but rather served as a reminder that they had been flagging in the one-day format of the game for a while now.
“It's a reminder, not a wake-up call. We knew through the Australian summer we weren't playing anywhere near as good a cricket as we needed to be against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/India-c750,” he pointed out, referring to the Commonwealth Bank tri-series in February this year.
He also went on to refer to the ODI series played against the West Indies in March this year, which saw the Windies stepping up to challenge their visitors, and eventually ending the series (which http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Australia-c746 had been fully expected to win) on a 2-2 (5) draw.
“We went to the http://www.senore.com/Cricket/West-Indies-c760 and just got over the line there so it's not like this is the first series where we haven't played as well as we'd like,” Clarke pointed out, in reference to Australia’s dropping standards in their ODI showings.
However, the Aussies have a chance to put bad performances behind them and strengthen their top spot on the rankings in their upcoming 3-match one-day series against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755, due to commence on August 28 in Sharjah.
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