Graeme Smith

Calcutta: An all out victory in the five-match one-day International (ODI) series against England will earn South Africa a chance to close the gap on Australia in the Reliance Mobile International Cricket Council ODI Championship table.

A 5-0 win will help Graeme Smith and Co. to reduce the gap with Australia to just two points. However, a clean sweep over the Proteas would help sixth-placed England to climb three places to third.

But, if the Proteas win 3-2, their victory margin will not be enough to maintain their second place and they will slip to third behind India.

On the contrary, a 3-2 win for England would witness them rise one spot to the fifth and consequently South Africa would drop to third, again providing India with the second spot.

RANKINGS

Teams

1. Australia; 2. South Africa; 3. India; 4. New Zealand; 5. Pakistan; 6. England; 7. Sri Lanka; 8. West Indies; 9. Bangladesh; 10. Zimbabwe.

Batsmen

1. M.S. Dhoni; 2. Mike Hussey; 3. Graeme Smith; 4. Ricky Ponting; 5= AB de Villiers, Chris Gayle; 7. Shivnarine Chanderpaul; 8. Yuvraj Singh; 9. Sachin Tendulkar; 10 Jacques Kallis.

Bowlers

1. Daniel Vettori; 2. Shakib Al Hasan; 3. Ray Price; 4. Nuwan Kulasekara; 5. Kyle Mills; 6. Dale Steyn; 7. Shane Bond; 8= Shahid Afridi, Harbhajan Singh; 10. Ajantha Mendis

All-rounders

1. Shakib Al Hasan; 2. Shane Watson; 3. Yuvraj Singh; 4. Jacques Kallis; 5. Shahid Afridi, Jacob Oram