India surrenders No 1 ODI rank

Hamilton: India were today dethroned as the number one ODI team after they suffered an agonising 15-run defeat in a rain-truncated second cricket one-dayer against New Zealand, who have now taken a 2-0 lead in the five-match series here.

India, who desperately needed a win to retain their top spot, made a valiant effort to overhaul the revised target of 297 in 42 overs but failed to cross the finishing line scoring 277 for nine in 41.3 overs, giving Australia pole position in the ICC ODI rankings. The Duckworth-Lewis par score in 41.3 overs was 293.

Put into bat, the Kiwis rattled up 271 for seven riding on Kane Williamson's 76 and all-rounder Corey Anderson's rampaging 17-ball-44 that included five huge sixes as the hosts amassed a whopping 101 runs in 8.4 overs after rain interruption.

India were left with a daunting task of chasing a revised target of 297 as per the D/L method and were again done in by a shaky start and lack of big partnerships which has been their bane of late.

Virat Kohli, who hit a century in the first ODI, again top-scored with a sparkling 78 while skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni (56), Suresh Raina (35), Ajinkya Rahane (36) got the starts but could not translate them into match-winning knocks.

Tim Southee (4/72) was pick of the New Zealand bowlers while Anderson again displayed his all-round prowess picking up three for 67 with wickets of Dhoni, Ravindra Jadeja and Bhuvneshwar Kumar. Shikhar Dhawan (12, 22 balls) and Rohit Sharma (20, 34 balls) wasted a lot of deliveries upfront as India couldn't take advantage of the bowling Powerplay.

MSD rules out retirement until 2015 Cup

New Delhi: A “fitter” and “healthier” M.S. Dhoni on Monday put rest to all speculations about retiring from any of the formats, saying that it would be unfair to put the burden of captaincy on a new player as the 2015 World Cup was just a year away.

“Now, it’s a point of no return. The World Cup is literally one year away and it won’t give a new guy the ideal time to play, at least, 70-80-90 games beginning to the World Cup. It will be tough for him,” Dhoni said on the sidelines of an event here.

Dhoni keen to continue as skipper in all three formats

Last year during the Australia tour, Dhoni had said that he would take a call on whether he would play all formats of the game in order to lead India’s title defence in 2015.

“I understand the pressure, it’s not always that you turn up and at the same time, you get the kind of things which give you more experience than the others. So, we have to go through it,” he added.

The back-to-back series against West Indies and South Africa had left the Indian team tired and Dhoni too was no different. However, the skipper asserted that he is in good shape physically, at least for the time being.

“As of now, it’s looking good. The body is closely knit together. How it will be (in future), I don’t know but so far so good.”

Evaluating India’s disastrous tour of South Africa where his boys lost both the ODI and Test series, Dhoni blamed one bad session in Durban for the embarrassment.

“I agree, we had some tough times. We had one really bad session because of which we were on the losing side,” he said.

“It’s a process where we have to improve and also the fact that now we will be continuously playing out of India, so it will give more exposure to the players.

“Most of the players, who are part of the side barring a few, they have not played, may be, more than five Test matches outside India. I know they will take some time but the overall performance was good.”

In the recent times, Indian bowlers’ ability to take 20 wickets on foreign soil was doubted and the 31-year-old admitted it’s one area where the team need to improve.

Kohli jumps to career-best rankings

Dubai: Star Indian batsman Virat Kohli jumped nine places to achieve his career-best 11th spot in the latest Reliance ICC Player Rankings for Test batsmen issued today.

Kohli, who stroked 119 and 96 in the two innings in the first Test against South Africa, was the second highest-ranked Indian after Cheteshwar Pujara, another centurion in the same match in Johannesburg, who remained on seventh spot after earning 37 rating points.

South African A B de Villiers, one of the two South African centurions to help draw the Johannesburg Test, leads the rankings. He leads compatriot and second-ranked Hashim Amla by 25 ratings points.

Meanwhile, South Africa fast bowler Vernon Philander has achieved the coveted number-one ranking on the Reliance ICC Player Rankings for Test Bowlers after a stellar performance against India in the drawn Johannesburg Test.

Philander has dislodged team-mate Dale Steyn, who had been at the top of table since July 2009 when he went past Sri Lanka's Muttiah Muralitharan. Overall, Steyn spent 186 matches at the number-one position, the second-most ever after Muralitharan.

Philander had entered the Test trailing Steyn by four ratings points. While Philander recorded figures of four for 61 and three for 68, Steyn managed just one wicket. The contrasting performances resulted in Philander gaining 13 ratings points and Steyn conceding 13 ratings points.

This swing means Philander now leads Steyn by 22 ratings points and the 28-year-old from Bellville will now start the Durban Test as the number-one ranked bowler in the world for the first time in his career.

Philander is now the seventh South Africa bowler to claim the number-one rank after Aubrey Faulkner (1914-1921), Hugh Tayfield (1955-1958), Peter Pollock (1969), Allan Donald (1998-1999), Shaun Pollock (1999-2003) and Steyn (2008-2013).

Overall Philander is the 74th bowler to head the Test bowling ranking. Philander has also become the third South Africa bowler after Pollock and Steyn to break the barrier of 900 ratings points, considered a landmark for top bowlers. Philander's total of 912 ratings points is the joint-sixth best ever, with England's Tony Lock and West Indies paceman Curtly Ambrose, and the best-ever by a South Africa bowler.

In the team rankings, New Zealand's eight-wicket win over West Indies in the Hamilton Test has helped it register a 2-0 series win and, thereby, gain seven ratings points to retain seventh position with 82 ratings points. West Indies, on the other hand, has dropped behind Sri Lanka in seventh position in the table headed by South Africa (131 rating points). India are at second place with 119 rating points.

England off-spinner Graeme Swann, who retired from international cricket yesterday, ended his Test career in 15th spot. Swann's highest ranking with the ball was when he achieved the number-two position in March 2010. He reached a peak of 858 points later that year.

Swann also spent 41 matches and 111 days in 2011 as the top ranked ODI bowler, first reaching top spot on 3 July 2011. He has ended his ODI career in 24th rank on the bowling table. He also spent 35 matches and 338 days as the top ranked T20I bowler, first reaching top spot on 30 December 2010. Swann has ended his T20 International career in 17th position.