 India has got to the top of the test playing world by beating the Sri Lankan side
by an innings in the third and the final test match at Brabourne. India,
in the process, also managed to win the series rather easily by a margin of two
games to zero.
The Indians needed not more than 30 minutes to get rid of the last four Sri
Lankan batsmen. This included their captain Kumar Sangakkara, who was batting
well with his century but was sent back by Zaheer Khan in the very first
over. The remaining three tail-enders did not last too long, as Zaheer Khan
returned with a five wicket haul and India with the number one ranking!
India had earlier routed the Sri Lankans in the second test match at Kanpur
by another innings. This meant that the Sri Lankans, who had come to India with
the hope of winning their first ever test match, did not manage to do that again
and continued their losing streak. Out of the 17 games that the Sri Lankans
have played in India, they have yet to win a single one, and only seven of them
have ended in draws. India has been victorious on ten occasions, with eight
of them by huge innings! Two other victories, which did not happen by innings,
had come in 2005, and on both occasions the visitors were thrashed - by 188
runs and 259 runs respectively.
Now, this is the first time that India has been given the top ranking in the
official ranking system. No other team apart from Australia and South Africa
have ever been ranked at the top. Australia had been the number one team for
almost eight years before the title was taken away from them for some time by
South Africa. With this 2-0 win, India catapulted from the third position in
the ranking to the number one, whereas Sri Lanka has gone down to the
number four position.
However, India will be playing only two more test matches in the next 11 months,
and this could have an effect on their ranking. In this same period, South Africa
plays four test matches at least, whereas Australia plays eight games,
thus having an opportunity to go up on the top of the innings. India's two games
will be played against Bangladesh in Bangladesh, but apart from that, they will
have to wait for the next year end for another shot at the five day format.
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