SYDNEY: Australia’s skipper Ricky Ponting hoped that his team would continue to maintain its number one ranking in the cricket world next year too. Ponting said South Africa will not deserve to be called the world's best team even if it wins the forthcoming three-Test series starting in Perth this month.Australia is 13 points ahead of the second-placed Proteas on the International Cricket Council's Test rankings.Ponting says it takes a long period of domination for a team to become world champion."It has taken us a long time and a lot of great wins in different conditions around the world to get us to that number one spot," he said."If South Africa beat us 3-0, I don't know if that gives them enough points to get over us."But if they won the series 1-0 or 2-1, I don't think that would mean that they deserve to take over that mantle."Ponting said he had been assured that his wrist problem would not force him to scale back his workload.
Friday, August 14, 2009 MUMBAI: A 26-year-old woman died Thursday of H1N1 swine flu in the southern city of Bangalore, raising India's death toll from the virus to 20, authorities said.The death was the first reported in India's information technology capital, the Press Trust of India reported.Meanwhile in Pune, the worst-affected in India, two more victims of the virus died Thursday, raising the death toll in that western city near Mumbai to 12, the report said. The victims were an 11-month-old boy and a 75-year-old old woman.US media reported movie halls, schools and colleges were ordered closed Thursday for three days to a week in Mumbai, the commercial and financial capital of the country, as fear of the pandemic spread.Prajakata Lavangare, a spokeswoman for the government of Maharashtra state of which Mumbai is the capital, said similar orders were issued in Pune, which is also located in the state.The woman who died in Bangalore was identified only as Roopa, a teacher in...
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