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Heros and Villains..38
New Zealand Edged Out of the Competition But Scott Styris is still the Leading Player
The first semi final of the Cricket World Cup between Sri Lanka and New Zealand ended with a convincing victory for Sri Lanka. In the process Scott Styris played the last match of this world cup but remained the leader with 754 NCR points.
His close rival remains to be Sanath Jayasuriya at 661 points with one more match to go. Mathew Hayden is not far behind at 632 points with two matches to go. He has a very realistic chance of emerging the player of the Tournament since the gap of 122 points can easily be made up by him if Australia reaches the finals. The nearest South African is Graem Smith at 497 points. He will not find it easy to bridge the gap of 257 points with Styris unless South Africa beats Australia in the Semi Finals and Smith scores a Century plus in both matches.
With two more matches to go, therefore the race is between the top three players of the current table and each one of them deserve the honour as much as any body else. It is to be noted that Hayden despite not being an allrounder is in contention.
Bradd Hogg is currently the best bowler in NCR ranking ahead of Muralitharan and technically he also has an outside chance of finishing at the top with a couple of 5 wicket hauls.
Let's wait and watch.
New Rank Previous Rank Points Name Country 1 1 754 Scott Styris New Zealand 2 3 661 Sanath Jayasurya Sri Lanka 3 2 632 Mathew Hayden Australia 4 4 545 Brad Hogg Australia 5 12 534 Muttiah Muralitharan Sri Lanka 6 14 530 Mahela Jayawardene Sri Lanka 7 5 497 Greame Smith South Africa 8 6 457 Kevin Pieterson England 9 7 448 Dwayne Bravo West Indies 10 8 446 Jacques Kallis South Africa
Following are the players with Negative NCR Rankings
Players with Negative NCR Points New Rank Previous Rank Points Name Country 151 147 -1 Peter Gillespie Ireland 152 148 -4 Navdeep Poonia Scotland 153 149 -7 Rana Naved Pakistan 154 150 -8 EC Rainsford Zimbabwe 154 150 -8 Gavin Hamilton Scotland 154 150 -8 Mark Gillespie New Zealand 155 151 -11 AN Kerveezee Netherlands 156 152 -12 Dewald Nel Scotland 157 153 -15 David Obuya Kenya 158 154 -16 H Osinde Canada 159 155 -18 Tapash Baisya Bangladesh 160 156 -21 F Katseni Zimbabwe 161 157 -22 Azar Mahmood Pakistan 162 158 -28 JF Mooney Ireland 163 159 -47 Nehemiah Odhiyambo Kenya The discredit of being the Worst contributor of the World Cup 2007 goes to Odhiyambo of Kenya.
Naavi
April 25 2007
