ICC confirms new WTC points system: 12 for win, 4 for draw, 6 for tie
Dubai: The ICC on Wednesday officially confirmed that teams will be awarded standardised 12 points for a win, four for a draw and six for a tie during the second World Test Championship cycle which kicks off with the five-match series between India and England in August.
The ICC further said that percentage of points won will be used to determine standings in the 2021-23 cycle.
Earlier, each Test series carried a value of 120 points which led to certain inequality in the table as a team winning a Test in a two-match series got 60 points compared to five-game series where a Test win is valued at 24 points.
PTI had last month reported that ICC was set to introduce the new standardised points system for the second WTC cycle soon.
ICC Acting Chief Executive Geoff Allardice said the changes were made to simplify the points system while taking learnings from the disruption last year.
"We received feedback that the previous points system needed to be simplified. The Cricket Committee took this into consideration when proposing a new, standardized points system for each match. It maintained the principle of ensuring that all matches in a WTC series count towards a team's standing, while accommodating series varying in length between two Tests and five Tests," Allardice said in an ICC statement.
"During the pandemic we had to change to ranking teams on the points table using the percentage of available points won by each team, since all series could not be completed.
"This helped us determine the finalists and we were able to complete the championship within the scheduled time frame. This method also allowed us to compare the relative performance of teams at any time, regardless of how many matches they had played."
Apart from the India-England series, the Ashes later this year will be the only other five-match affair in the second cycle which will end in June 2023.
Australia's tour of India next year is the only four-Test series in the upcoming cycle.
The nine Test teams will play a total of six series -- three home and three away just like the previous edition.
India captain Virat Kohli said after losing the inaugural WTC final to New Zealand, he expects his side to regroup with "new energy" in the new cycle, which begins with the first Test against England starting August 4.
"It was great to have played the final of the ICC World Test Championship against New Zealand in what was a memorable contest. Not just the final, we saw the determination of players throughout the first edition of the championship," Kohli said.
"The following of cricket lovers too was great to see, and I am sure they will all be waiting eagerly for the second edition. We will regroup with new energy for the next cycle starting with our series against England."
Reigning champion New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson said WTC has revived people's interest in the traditional format of the game.
"It was obviously pretty special to win the inaugural ICC World Test Championship in Southampton last month and it's exciting to now look ahead to the second edition.
"The WTC has certainly added more context and brought new meaning to Test cricket and it was awesome to see the interest that was generated around the Final against India," he said.
"We know trying to defend the title will be a huge challenge, but our focus will be on making sure we prepare as well as we can for the tours ahead and trying to maintain our level of performance."
England captain Joe Root describes the upcoming five-Test duel against India as an "interesting challenge".
"We start our campaign in the second edition of the ICC World Test Championship against the finalists of last time, which is an interesting challenge straight away," he said.
"India are a fine all-round side and it would be good to test them in our home conditions. We narrowly missed out on qualifying for the final last time and are looking to do better this time.
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Pandya''s blazing fifty, ruthless bowlers earn India 101-run win over SA
Cuttack (PTI): Hardik Pandya made a memorable comeback to competitive cricket, striking a mood-lifting unbeaten fifty and then took a key wicket as India etched a dominant 101-run win over South Africa in the opening match of the five-match series here on Tuesday.
The victory helped India take a 1-0 lead in the rubber and it also pushed South Africa to their lowest-ever T20I total. Their previous lowest was also against India -- 87 all out in Rajkot in 2022.
India had been pushed onto the back-foot after SA asked them to bat first on a tacky red-soil surface, but Pandya’s commanding 59 not out off 28 balls rescued them from early turbulence. India posted a competitive 175/6.
On a pitch that demanded discipline, South Africa showed none, to be all out for a mere 74 in 12.3 overs, as the hosts’ bowlers ran through them with relentless accuracy.
Arshdeep Singh, Jasprit Bumrah, Varun Chakravarthy and Axar Patel grabbed two wickets each, while Pandya fittingly chipped in with the prized scalp of David Miller.
It was also South Africa’s first defeat in three T20Is in Cuttack, and if India had started shakily, South Africa began disastrously.
Arshdeep set the tone with a superb away-swinger that kissed past Quinton de Kock’s tentative prod for a two-ball duck.
In his next over, Arshdeep produced another beauty -- a length ball that jagged back into the in-form Tristan Stubbs (14).
India went upstairs for the review, and UltraEdge confirmed a thick inside edge onto the elbow before Jitesh Sharma completed a sharp take as South Africa were 18/2 inside four overs.
Axar was introduced in the final over of the powerplay and struck immediately.
Aiden Markram, shuffling back to work a skiddy, straight delivery, was beaten on the inside edge to get bowled. At 28/3 in six overs, South Africa were already in a hole.
Pandya then added to their misery, dismissing Miller.
Chakravarthy, operating with sharp drift and deceptive pace, got into action after the powerplay. Donovan Ferreira was late to react to a delivery that held back, and could only nick behind to Jitesh.
Marco Jansen, who had fielded brilliantly earlier, was undone by Chakravarthy’s googly as South Africa slid to 68/6.
The end arrived quickly thereafter with Bumrah cleaning up Dewald Brevis and Keshav Maharaj in the space of four deliveries.
Earlier, coming back after 74 days following a left quadricep injury that forced him out of the Asia Cup, Pandya walked in at No. 6 and immediately changed the tempo of the match.
India had slipped in both the power play and middle overs losing six wickets, but Pandya, who had proved his fitness at the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy for Baroda with a 42-ball 77 not out, counter-attacked with clean, fearless hitting to finish en route his sixth T20I fifty.
He began with two towering sixes against Maharaj just after a well-set Tilak Varma (26) fell. Pandya then ripped into Anrich Nortje with a 17-run over, even stepping out to a 149kph thunderbolt to punch it for four.
Jansen tried to rush him with short balls, but Pandya pulled one with vengeance before racing towards fifty that lifted the mood in the stadium.
He struck a six and four off Lutho Sipamla (2/38) in the 19th over, and reached his half-century in 25 balls with a ramped six over third man off Nortje in the final over, celebrating it with a muted raise of the bat.
Pandya's late fireworks helped India add 71 runs in the last six overs.
But on a fresh red-soil surface offering two-paced bounce, India struggled early.
Abhishek Sharma (17), Shubman Gill (4) and Suryakumar Yadav (12) all fell inside seven overs as Lungi Ngidi (3/31) exploited the conditions superbly with clever variations.
He removed Gill early as the batter chipped to Jansen at mid-off, and later had skipper Suryakumar holding out to Markram to have India 17/2.
Abhishek tried to force the pace after the field restrictions lifted, but fell to Sipamla, thanks to a stunning sliding catch by the 2.06m Jansen sprinting across from long leg to fine leg.
His brief stay of 17 off 12 balls ended just as he began to find rhythm with back-to-back boundaries as India soon slipped to 48/3 in 6.3 overs.
Varma looked set while smashing a towering six off Nortje and with two fours in his 32-ball 26 but the Indian innings started to wobble again with him and Axar (23) dismissed by Ngidi and Sipamla respectively.
