The Champions Trophy, which, under a new format, will feature the best eight teams. Recent form - over the last few years and in the South Africa where the tournament is being held - is any indication, the winners will be one of Australia, South Africa or India.       The stats of teams since the last Champions Trophy back that Australia, South Africa and India are the front runner for the trophy. These teams had won more games than they've lost against the top eight teams since last Champions Trophy.       During this period, India has won 11 out of 17 series, Australia have won 6 out of 12, and South Africa have won 7 out of 10 series.         The eight ODI teams against each other since last Champions Trophy:   Team ODIs W/ L = ratio Bat ave Bowl ave Australia 70 43/ 23 = 1.86 37.12 27.76 South Africa 46 28/ 16 = 1.75 35.37 29.10 India 78 42/ 30 = 1.40 33.87 33.69 New Zealand 55 22/ 25 = 0.88 31.00 34.53 Pakistan 44 20/ 23 = 0.86 30.97 34.15 Sri Lanka 60 25/ 31 = 0.80 28.98 28.58 England 62 25/ 34 = 0.73 28.74 31.40 West Indies 49 11/ 34 = 0.32 27.09 36.91   Above table clearly state that only these three teams been the best everywhere in the last three years having more wins than loss in there bag.       Trophy front runner Australia has good record on South Africa soil. One will find South Africa and Aussis record exceptional if look at all the matches played in South Africa since beginning of this decade.       Teams in South Africa in ODIs among the top eight since 2000:   Team ODIs W/L = ratio Bat ave Bowl ave South Africa 87 58/ 21 = 2.76 37.14 28.04 Australia 27 17/ 9 = 1.88 34.45 29.19 India 14 5/ 9 = 0.55 24.82 35.93 England 14 3/ 9 = 0.33 27.77 27.22 Sri Lanka 17 4/ 12 = 0.33 25.53 39.73 New Zealand 19 3/ 14 = 0.21 27.52 37.07 West Indies 13 2/ 10 = 0.20 28.43 44.35 Pakistan 13 2/ 10 = 0.20 23.98 38.20   The individual batting stats of players in South Africa offer some interesting insights too. For one, it explains - partially at least - why Rahul Dravid was brought back into the Indian team. He leads the averages chart among batsmen who'll be playing in the tournament. If one looks in the table below, the top 8 out of 10 players are from these favourites.       Batsmen against the top eight teams in ODIs in South Africa   Batsman ODIs Runs Average 100s/ 50s Rahul Dravid 17 737 56.69 0/ 9 Ricky Ponting 22 1031 54.26 4/ 4 Jacques Kallis 113 4080 46.89 6/ 28 JP Duminy 13 398 44.22 0/ 2 Michael Hussey 10 338 42.25 0/ 3 AB de Villiers 34 1159 41.39 0/ 9 Graeme Smith 56 2079 39.98 3/ 16 Herschelle Gibbs 87 2739 34.23 9/ 9 Sanath Jayasuriya 29 899 32.10 2/ 5 Mohammad Yousuf 18 509 31.81 1/ 2 Sachin Tendulkar 26 822 31.61 1/ 4 Kumar Sangakkara 17 404 28.85 0/ 2 Mark Boucher 101 1522 27.67 0/ 5 Michael Clarke 10 243 27.00 0/ 3 Brendon McCullum 12 237 26.33 0/ 1 Paul Collingwood 10 181 25.85 0/ 1 Younis Khan 13 336 25.84 0/ 2 Yuvraj Singh 10 180 22.50 0/ 1     Among the bowlers, most of the wicket-takers have been the fast men. Brett Lee leads the way with an excellent haul of 41 wickets in just 19 games, with three four-wicket hauls and a five-for. Shane Bond and Makhaya Ntini have been among the wickets as well. The spinners have reasonable economy-rates, but apart from Muttiah Muralitharan, they haven't had a lot of wicket-taking success.       Bowlers against the top eight teams in ODIs in South Africa:   Bowler ODIs Wickets Average Econ … [Read more...]