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Ireland has lost eight ratings points in the LG ICC ODI Championship table following its 3-0 series defeat in Bangladesh.

Although Trent Johnston’s team remained competitive in all three ODIs in Dhaka, it was unable to reproduce the sort of form that saw it pull off a famous win over Bangladesh in Barbados during the Super Eight stage of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2007.

A Tamim Iqbal century at the Shere Bangla National Stadium on Saturday made sure Bangladesh posted a daunting total of 296-7 off 50 overs. Tamim was well supported by Shahriar Nafees (54) and Mohammad Mahmudullah (49) with David Langford-Smith taking 3-53 for the Irish.

And although left-hander Niall O’Brien (70 off 73 balls) batted very well and did his best to chase down that total, Ireland eventually fell 79 runs short, an effort not helped by the fact that it suffered four run outs along the way.

The three defeats have dropped Ireland from 28 points to 20 but it does retain its 10th position in the log, just two ratings points ahead of Zimbabwe in 11th and 28 points behind Bangladesh in ninth place.

Mohammad Ashraful’s team gained two points for the series win over Ireland but it still has plenty of work to do to catch the West Indies, which lies in eighth place, some 48 points in front.

At the top of the LG ICC ODI Championship the competition is much fiercer with first-placed South Africa and Australia in second separated by a fraction of a point.

The same is true for New Zealand in third position and India in fourth while there are just four ratings points separating Pakistan in fifth spot and England in seventh with Sri Lanka sandwiched between those two in sixth place.

As several of the top teams are involved in Tests at present, there are no more ODIs scheduled until the West Indies takes on Sri Lanka at Port of Spain on 10 April.

LG ICC ODI Championship (as of 21 March)

Rank   Team                           Rating

1          South Africa                 127

2          Australia                       127

3          New Zealand                113

4          India                             113

5          Pakistan                       109               

6          Sri Lanka                     107

7          England                        105

8          West Indies                  96

9          Bangladesh                   48

10        Ireland                          20

11        Zimbabwe                    18

12        Kenya                          0

(Developed by David Kendix)

For more information go to http://www.icc-cricket.com/icc/rankings/lg.html