This Month In ... 1998

Sachin Tendulkar's back-to-back centuries against Australia in Sharjah on 22 and 24 April 1998 are now a part of cricketing folklore. Scored within the span of three days and in two crucial games, his knocks of 143 and 134 not only provided India a tournament win but also marked the beginning of a year in which Tendulkar scored 1894 runs in one-day international cricket at 65.31 and an ahead-of-its-time strike rate of 102.15.

While the 143 helped India qualify for the final of the tri-series – New Zealand was the third team – despite losing the game, the 134 gave India a famous five-wicket win in the final over Australia, who were on the doorstep of world dominance, a run that would see them winning three consecutive ICC Cricket World Cups – 1999, 2003 and 2007 – and become one of the most difficult teams to beat.

Here's how the MRF Tyres ICC ODI Player Rankings for batsmen stood at the beginning of that Sharjah series, on 16 April.

In the ODI rankings for batsmen, Tendulkar's feat helped him gain 61 points – he went from 785 points on 16 April to 846 points on 25 April, after the final. These points gained him three places in the rankings as he climbed from No.6 to No.3.

The man he replaced at the third spot, South Africa's Gary Kirsten, lost three points despite his half-century against Pakistan at home.

Mark Waugh, who ended the series with 149 runs in five games at an underwhelming average of 37.25, lost 13 points and a place and slipped to the sixth position while Sourav Ganguly, who started the series with a 105 against New Zealand but returned scores of 8, 31, 17 and 23 after that, entered the top 10 despite losing a point. He had 750 points before the series and ended it with 749 to his name. However, he had jumped to 774 points in between those two standings.

Brian Lara (892) and Michael Bevan – he went from 852 to 872 points after ending the series as the second-highest scorer with 276 runs at 92 – retained their No.1 and No.2 positions respectively, while Sanath Jayasuriya lost eight points but hung on to the fifth spot with 791 points.

Here's how the rankings looked like after the final of the tri-series on 25 April 1998.

South Africa's Hansie Cronje climbed three places to occupy the seventh spot even though he did not gain any points even as Sri Lanka's Aravinda de Silva lost 13 points to slip from the seventh to the eighth position.

Saeed Anwar remained steadfast at No.9 despite losing 11 points, while Mohammad Azharuddin, who was ranked eighth on 16 April, found himself out of the top 10.

There was less turbulence in the table for bowlers. Here's how the rankings looked on 16 April 1998.

Among the bowlers, Damien Fleming, who ended with 10 wickets in the tri-series including a 4/28 against New Zealand, broke into the top 10 with 658 points. He replaced New Zealand's Gavin Larsen by gaining 81 points and 15 positions. He was ranked 25th in the world with 577 points before the series.

Elsewhere, Wasim Akram gained six points to move from the seventh to the fifth spot while Muttiah Muralitharan lost a place and nine points to slip from sixth to the seventh spot – he went from 708 to 699 points. Muralitharan's teammate Chaminda Vaas went from 720 to 702 and lost a place to occupy the sixth position.

Here's how the rankings looked like after the final of the tri-series on 25 April 1998.

Courtney Walsh and Darren Gough stuck to their No.8 and No.9 positions, respectively. Shaun Pollock gained 33 points and strengthened his position at the top of the rankings with 804 points. He was followed by Curtly Ambrose at No.2, who had 764 points, and Allan Donald at No.3, who had 756 points to his name.