First position in the ODI ranking for the first time in Pakistan’s Cricket history

First position in the ODI ranking for the first time in Pakistan’s Cricket history

……….Report, Asghar Ali Mubarak………………

After defeating New Zealand in the fourth ODI of Pakistan of five matches series , for the first time in the history of cricket, the national team came to the first place in the ranking of the International Cricket Council (ICC).
Before the start of the series with New Zealand, New Zealand was second in the ICC ODI rankings while Pakistan was ranked 5th.

After the victory in the fourth ODI, Pakistan’s total rating points have reached 113.483, Australia’s rating points are 113.286, while India’s rating points are 112.638. Pakistan is currently leading Australia and India by decimal points, if Pakistan clean sweep New Zealand then its lead will be clear.
Pakistan’s fifth and final ODI against New Zealand will be played on May 7. If the national team is defeated by the Kiwis in the last ODI, it will fall to the third position in the ranking and the Australia will retain the first position.
It is the first time in the history of ICC rankings that Pakistan has secured the first position in the ODI rankings. It should be noted that the ICC’s official ODI ranking system was introduced in 2005.
The ICC’s ranking system, developed by British statistician David Kendricks, has been applied in the past to predict team positions.

It should be noted that since the publication of the ranking, Pakistan’s best position has been third. In the past, according to this formula, Pakistan was at the first position in the ODI ranking in 1991, but this position had no official status.
Earlier in the fourth ODI match of the series played at the National Stadium in Karachi yesterday, New Zealand won the toss for the second time in a row and invited Pakistan to bat first. Babar Azam’s brilliant batting, Pakistan defeated New Zealand by a huge margin of 102 runs in the fourth ODI match.
Captain Babar Azam was declared the best player of the match for his brilliant batting. In the fourth ODI match of the series played at the National Stadium in Karachi, New Zealand won the toss for the second time in a row and invited Pakistan to bat first.

Pakistan’s innings did not get off to an impressive start and opener Fakhar Zaman, who scored two centuries in the series, failed to score big this time and fell to Henry for 14 off 36.

After that, captain Babar Azam came to the crease to support Shan Masood and both of them brought the team’s score to 86 runs. His innings of 44 runs ended. Muhammad Rizwan also failed to play a big innings and was run out and returned to the pavilion after scoring 24 runs, at which time Pakistan’s score was 128 runs.
After that, Babar Azam and Agha Salman did not let any wicket fall and formed a good partnership to take the team score to 245 runs, during which both the players completed their half-centuries.
However, the courage of Agha Salman, who scored 58 runs, was answered and the fast bowler caught Henry.

On the other hand, Babar Azam continued his brilliant batting and paved the way for the team to score big. Scored 334 runs for the loss of 6 wickets in the overs, including 28 runs by Iftikhar Ahmed, 17 runs by Mohammad Haris and 23 runs by Shaheen Shah Afridi.

For New Zealand, Matt Henry took 3 wickets while Ash Sodhi and Ben Lister got one wicket each. Chasing the target, the Kiwis did not get off to a good start and both their openers were bowled out for 46 runs. Will Young 15 and Tom Blundell 23 were caught out.

Captain Tom Latham and Daryl Mitchell then took the lead and pushed the team’s score forward, but Daryl Mitchell’s wicket of 34 for a total of 129 ended the partnership and the Kiwis suffered a heavy loss. Tom Latham batted well and scored a half-century but was caught out behind the wickets for individual scores of 60, leaving the visitors’ hopes of victory in tatters.
New Zealand’s other standout batsman was Mark Chapman who scored 46 runs, but after his dismissal for 201, the visitors started to fall wicket after wicket and were bowled out for 232 runs.

Thus, Pakistan won the match by a huge margin of 102 runs and took another step towards a clean sweep in the series and made their lead 0-4. On behalf of the national team, Osama Mir was the most successful bowler who dismissed 4 players to the pavilion, besides Muhammad Wasim 3, Haris Rauf 2 and Shaheen Shah Afridi dismissed one player. Captain Babar Azam was declared the best player of the match. Both the teams for the match consisted of these players.
Pakistan: Babar Azam (captain), Fakhar Zaman, Imamul Haq, Muhammad Rizwan, Iftikhar Ahmed, Muhammad Haris, Salman Ali Agha, Osama Mir, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Muhammad Wasim Jr. and Haris Rauf.
New Zealand: Tom Latham (captain), Tom Blundell, Willie Young, Daryl Mitchell, Mark Chapman, James Neesham, Cole McConchie, Ben Lister, Ash Sodhi, Matt Henry and Blair Tickner.