Ponting dropped - India play Lanka at Brisbane

At Woolloongabba, Brisbane, India play Sri Lanka in their 6^th match – made more interesting by some extraneous considerations !  The Tri-Nation Series now stands at:

Nation	Matches	Won	lost	Points
Australia	5	3	2	14
India	5	2	2	10
Sri Lanka	4	1	2	7

After today’s match, there would be 4 matches :  On Feb 24 Lankans play Aussies; Australia V India on Feb 26;  India Lanka again on Feb 28; Aus V Sri Lanka on Mar 2.  The top 2 teams would play in best of 3 Finals : Mar 4 at Brisbane; Mar 6  and Mar 8 at Adelaide. 

Timing one’s retirement or walking away in glory is one of the toughest decisions to make and now it appears to be  twilight for one of the flamboyant batsmen of the present era – at least from ODI Cricket – yes for the man who has made 13704 (2^nd highest in ODI history) with 30 tons (again 2^nd highest in ODI history) – played in 3 WC winning sides, captaining two of them in 2003 & 2007; has played 162 Tests with 13200 runs and 41 hundreds.  The punter as he is known, Ricky Ponting was almost apologetic to call a press conference announcing that he would continue playing cricket.  In the recent Test series he made 281 runs at an average of 108.8.  He hung on to play in One dayers without much success and now has been dropped.

India, on the other hand, is without Dhoni today – suspended for one match for the team’s over rate breach, coming as it did in ODIs in less than a year.  This is a result of 2 overs short at Brisbane against Australia where Andy Pycroft fined Dhoni 40% of match fee and team 20% of their fees.  Only recently Dhoni could not play Adelaide Test for the slow over rate at Perth.  The on-field umpires Steve Davies and Billy Bowden, third umpire Bruce Oxenford and fourth umpire Paul Reiffel laid the charge, to which Dhoni plead guilty and accepted the suspension. "Dhoni also acknowledged that he had been kept informed of the position regarding over-rates on a regular basis throughout the match and therefore accepted the decision," the ICC release stated.  A rule is a rule – but what for the blunders that the Umpires keep doing and what action against Bruce Oxenford ?  Travesty of Justice !!

In the present Series, a win with bonus point fetches 5; an ordinary win brings 4; Tie or No result gives 2.  In the event of teams finishing on equal points, the right to play in the final match or series will be determined as follows:

•       The team with the most number of wins

•       If still equal, the team with the most number of wins over the other team(s) who are equal on points and have the same number of wins

•       If still equal, the team with the highest number of bonus points

•       If still equal, the team with the highest net run rate

A team's net run rate is calculated by deducting from the average runs per over scored by that team throughout the competition, the average runs per over scored against that team throughout the competition. In the event of a team being all out in less than its full quota of overs, the calculation of its net run rate shall be based on the full quota of overs to which it would have been entitled and not on the number of overs in which the team was dismissed.

The team that achieves a run rate of 1.25 times that of the opposition shall be awarded one bonus point. A team's run rate will be calculated by reference to the runs scored in an innings divided by the number of overs faced.

As of now, the Australians are clearly ahead but theoretically the other 2 teams also have a chance.  So who would play the Finals and who would be the winner ?

With regards – S. Sampathkumar.