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ICC 2019 World Cup: Tough road ahead for Pakistan and West Indies for direct qualification

England will directly qualify being the hosts of the tournament along with the other top 7 teams.

ICC 2019 World Cup: Tough road ahead for Pakistan and West Indies for direct qualification

New Delhi: Going into the 3-match ODI series against West Indies, Pakistan needed to come out as 3-0 winners in order to confirm direct qualification in the 2019 ICC World Cup.

West Indies won the first match of the series, chasing down their highest ever total of 309 runs but failed to maintain the momentum in next two matches. A victory in the remaining two could have taken their points tally to 87 points, marginally ahead of fellow contenders.

Pakistan, similarly, might have been at 92 points, edging ahead of seventh-placed Bangladesh by a fraction if they had won the series 3-0.

The series conclusion did not see much movement in the rankings as Pakistan gained one point to reach 90 on the MRF Tyres ICC ODI Team Rankings to remain in eighth position while West Indies lost another point to remain ninth with 83 points.

Here's the complete ICC ODI team rankings table:-

Rank Name Matches Rating
1 South Africa 62 119
2 Australia 61 118
3 New Zealand 59 113
4 India 56 112
5 England 60 108
6 Sri Lanka 67 98
7 Bangladesh 35 92
8 Pakistan 58 89
9 West Indies 42 84
10 Afghanistan 36 52
11 Zimbabwe 55 48
12 Ireland 25 42

England will directly qualify being the hosts of the tournament along with the other top 7 teams. 30th September 2017 being the last date for direct qualification, both teams will be eager to improve and show error-free performances in the matches to come.

This was the last series before the annual update of rankings is released on May 1, which aims to reflect current performances eliminating older results.

As far as the remaining matches before the deadline day is concerned, Pakistan is scheduled to play at least six more ODIs, with minimum three of them in Champions Trophy and then three against Bangladesh.

West Indies, on the other hand due to play 10 more ODIs, both against better-ranked teams, 5 against England in England and 5 against India in India.