West Indies were 62 for 2 in those 22 overs of play.
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Zimbabwe bounced back on the International Cricket Council (ICC) Test rankings after the two-match defeat against New Zealand in Bulawayo earlier this month. Following the Sri Lanka-Australia series, India had needed to win the Port of Spain Test to retain the number-one Test ranking.
In Africa, New Zealand beat Zimbabwe 2-0 in Bulawayo, England and Pakistan played out an absorbing two-all drawn series in England, Sri Lanka swept aside Australia 3-0, while India beat the West Indies 2-0 in the Caribbean.
A jubilant Indian team pose for photographs after winning the series 2-0 at the Queens Park Oval in Port of Spain, on Monday.
The team, whose last Test was way back in November 2014, had been temporarily removed from the rankings owing to having played few matches to warrant any listing.
Pakistan’s steady progress to the top of the summit can be judged from the fact that it had entered in its home series against Australia in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in October 2014 in sixth position, while it was ranked fourth when it hosted England in a three-Test series past year in the UAE.
Offering his heartfelt congratulations to the team, Miandad said that he felt really proud to see Pakistan reaching the significant milestone while admitting that it was a great achievement for Misbah and his team, PakPassion.net reported.
“Number-one ranking is a reward for something we had planned as a group a few years ago and have worked extremely hard to achieve it. The key to success of the Test team was consistency and I hope if we remain consistent in ODIs then we will also achieve better results very soon”, Malik added. Both Saha and Ashwin scored a century each in the third Test to help India recover from the top-order collapse in the first innings.
“If we play four specialist bowlers at home we may not need the fifth because with three frontline spinners, it probably does the job for you”.
With a five-match ODI series against England starting today, ninth-ranked Pakistan have a mountain to climb. Whenever teams have done consistently well in Test cricket, their lower order has always contributed.
The two teams now move to Florida in the United States to play two T20 Internationals on August 27 and 28.
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Zimbabwe Cricket spokesperson Darlington Majonga confirmed the country’s reinstatement on the ICC Test rankings.
