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South African teams have reached five consecutive Test victories three times in the past: in 1967 to 1970 under Ali Bacher; in 1994-95 under Hansie Cronje; and in 1998-99 when they defeated West Indies 5-0, again under Cronje.� Each time, they were unable to convert their next opportunity.�
South Africa is scheduled to play their third two-Test series of their season against Pakistan in late December where they will have the chance to set a record in their own right.� However, victory over Pakistan is likely to be a far tougher prospect than defeating Sri Lanka.
Almost a year ago, South Africa was soundly defeated by the first ranked Australians in Test series in both nations.� The victory over Sri Lanka, combined with their earlier whitewash against Bangladesh in October, has seen South Africa consolidate their rating.
South Africa is currently locked in second place in the rankings and is unlikely to lose that position in the medium term.� They trail Australia by a massive 81 ratings-points and lead third placed Pakistan by a similarly large 75 ratings points
The two series victories against Sri Lanka and Bangladesh are yet to totally erase the points South Africa lost to Australia.� South Africa still needs another seven points to get back to where they were before their Australian misadventures.
South Africa has held second place in the ratings since the turn of the century when the Australians under the captaincy of Waugh took their cricket to another level and won a record 16 successive Tests.� Australia overtook the South Africans who were riding high after defeating West Indies 5-0 in early 1999.
Since that time, South Africa has maintained a very consistent rating.� However, they have shown little sign of the ruthlessness that took Australia beyond 1200 rating s points.� Until the Australians fall back below 1150 points, South Africa does not appear capable of claiming first place.
It was less than a year ago that Sri Lanka set a national record of nine consecutive victories.� However, all but one of these Tests was on their home pitches.� Their loss in South Africa again demonstrates that, like India, they do not cope with foreign conditions.
Sri Lanka is over reliant on Muralitharan in a similar way that Australia is reliant on Warne.� The difference is that Australia has high quality pace bowlers in McGrath and Gillespie to back Warne up.� Sri Lanka has no such back up for Muralitharan.�
In each of the Tests against South Africa, the home side ran rampant with the bat and put additional pressure on the Sri Lankan batsmen.� The pressure resulted in batting collapses.� Sri Lanka's only reasonable innings of 323 runs, in their first innings of the second Test, was then wasted when they were unable to sustain the pressure when in the field.
Sri Lanka started the series in fifth place in the ratings.� India then completed their victory over West Indies mid way through the Sri Lanka tour of South Africa.� The net result was that India overtook Sri Lanka to claim fifth place.� Sri Lanka now finds itself in sixth place with India 15 ratings points ahead of them.
Sri Lanka?s lead over seventh placed New Zealand is a mere six rating points.� New Zealand will have the opportunity to overtake Sri Lanka when India begins their tour in December.� At this time, Sri Lanka has lost control of their destiny and will be unable to defend their position until after the world cup one-day competition that begins in late January.
The latest Test cricket ratings are: 1. Australia (1230); 2. South Africa (1149); 3. Pakistan (1074); 4. England (1059); 5. India (1045); 6. Sri Lanka (1030); 7. New Zealand (1025); 8. West Indies (996); 9. Zimbabwe (902); 10. Bangladesh (826).
