New Zealand and Sri Lanka go head-to-head as battle to avoid ICC Champions Trophy preliminary round intensifies

New Zealand and Sri Lanka go head-to-head in a four-match ODI series starting on Saturday with both sides knowing defeat could help to consign them to a place in the preliminary round of next year's ICC Champions Trophy in India.

The sides will avoid that fate if they are inside the top six of the LG ICC ODI Championship table on 1 April* but one of them will slip out of those positions with a series loss here.

And with time - and matches - running out ahead of that cut-off date the stakes are high starting in Queenstown this weekend.

What gives this series added spice is the fact that the two sides are locked together in a tightly packed middle section of the table.

Just one point separates four sides from New Zealand in fourth spot to England, outside that all-important top six, in seventh position.

It means England's players and management will have a keen interest in events over the next couple of weeks and they could even be the beneficiaries if one of the sides in action plays especially well.

A series clean sweep by either New Zealand or Sri Lanka will take the winners to a rating of 115, just behind third-placed Pakistan, but it will also drop the losers to 103 and seventh slot in the LG ICC ODI Championship table, behind England who would then assume a top six place.

Even a 3-1 success for either side will have that same effect of pushing England into the top six and the only way that will not happen is if the series is shared 2-2.

In that case New Zealand and Sri Lanka will retain their current ratings and England will still be in seventh position.

Neither New Zealand nor Sri Lanka can be said to be in prime ODI form coming into this series with the home side smarting from the 2-1 loss to arch-rivals Australia in the Chappell-Hadlee Trophy while Sri Lanka's last outing was a 6-1 thrashing at the hands of India.

However, New Zealand have happy memories from their most recent match, the world record run-chase against Australia in Christchurch earlier this month.

The architects of that chase are all modestly placed in the LG ICC ODI Rankings for batsmen with centurion Scott Styris in 36th position while Brendon McCullum and Daniel Vettori, who took New Zealand to victory, are 57th and 102nd respectively.

The reason New Zealand are not higher in the LG ICC ODI Championship table is summed up quite neatly by a glance at those batting rankings because they do not have a single player inside the top 20, with captain Stephen Fleming their highest-placed individual, in 26th spot.

Further down the list comes Chris Cairns (37th) and the dropped duo of Nathan Astle (38th) and Craig McMillan (39th), while Hamish Marshall is 42nd and Lou Vincent, who enjoyed some success as an opener against Australia, is 49th, with his best-ever points tally.

New Zealand appear in a healthier position when it comes to bowling resources, with five players inside the top 30 positions of the LG ICC ODI Rankings, including four of them in the top 20.

Spinner Vettori is in fifth place, at his highest-ever rating, the fit-again Shane Bond is 14th, and just behind him comes Jacob Oram (16th) and Kyle Mills (17th), with Styris completing the top 30 quintet in 26th slot.

Sri Lanka have three batsmen inside the top 20 positions in the LG ICC ODI Rankings. Kumar Sangakkara, who impressed for the ICC World XI during the Johnnie Walker Super Series in October, is 10th, captain Marvan Atapattu is 17th and Sanath Jayasuriya, dropped for the Test series in India but now recalled, lies in joint 20th place.

With the ball Sri Lanka have two evergreens in the top ten, with champion spinner Muttiah Muralidaran in fourth place and left-arm swing and seam bowler Chaminda Vaas in seventh.

Among the all-rounders, Styris is fifth while outside that top five are Jayasuriya (10th) and Cairns (13th).

The schedule for the New Zealand - Sri Lanka ODI series is as follows:

31 December - first ODI, Queenstown
3 January - second ODI, Christchurch
6 January - third ODI, Wellington
8 January - fourth ODI, Napier

Full details of the current LG ICC Test Championship and how future results will impact on the table, as well as the LG ICC Player Rankings can be found here

* India, as hosts, will automatically qualify for the second stage of next year's ICC Champions Trophy even if they are outside the top six of the LG ICC ODI Championship table on 1 April 2006. If they are outside that top six then the sixth-placed side in the table will take part in the preliminary round.