Chris Rogers fell for 95, failing to turn a half-century into a hundred for the seventh Test innings in a row as Australia ended the second day of the first Test on 264 for five, 166 behind England on Thursday.
Dean Elgar and Hashim Amla had given South Africa a slender lead over New Zealand at the end of the third day of the first Test on Friday, which was disrupted for 30 minutes by a fire alarm at University Oval.
As we near the end of another eventful year, 15 top moments from the world of arts and culture.
New Zealand batsmen showed clinical efficiency in a tricky chase to spoil Virat Kohli's milestone match with a comfortable six-wicket victory over India in the opening One-Day International, in Mumbai on Sunday.
Images from Wednesday's World Cup match between England and New Zealand, at Chester-le-street.
India's batsmen came good on a flat track to put up 369 for 5 on Day 3 of the first Test against Australia in Adelaide on Thursday. Wriddhimaan Saha (1) and Rohit Sharma (33) were at the crease at the draw of stumps. Images from the day's play.
Joe Root again put Australia's bowlers to the sword and together with Ian Bell gave England the platform on Friday to push for victory in the first Ashes Test after setting the tourists 412 to win with two days remaining.
Virat Kohli and Bhuvneshwar Kumar are India's highest-ranked batsman and bowler in third and 13th positions respectively.
Factbox on the second Test match between Australia and England, which starts on Saturday:
Williamson had moved to 148 at stumps with Mitchell Santner on 13, the home side holding a seven run lead over South Africa's first innings of 314.
Riding on Joe Root's ton and Moeen Ali's half century (99 batting), England made most of the favourable conditions to finish Day 1 on 311/4. Here are the statistical highlights from Day 1 of the 1st Test in Rajkot on Wednesday.
England's Jos Buttler struck a belligerent unbeaten 100 to set up a 16-run win over Australia in the third one-day international on Sunday, as the touring side took an unassailable 3-0 lead in the five-match series.
Hard-hitting left-hander Chris Gayle will return to the West Indies squad for their tour of South Africa after recovering from a back injury.
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Opening batsman David Warner enjoyed a gift-wrapped century after being reprieved on 99 as Australia endured a meandering first day of the Boxing Day Test against England on Tuesday.
Leaders Bayern Munich eased past VfB Stuttgart 2-0 on Saturday to grab their first win of the year, as did Borussia Dortmund who beat Freiburg 3-0 to climb off the bottom of the Bundesliga table.
Virat Kohli has kept his stranglehold on the top spot in the ICC ODI batsman rankings.
A hobbling Kane Williamson guided New Zealand to 142 for five at the close of play on the third day of the second Test against Sri Lanka in Hamilton, with the hosts needing another 47 runs to seal a 2-0 series sweep.
India captain Virat Kohli reclaimed the top batting spot, while Australia's pace ace Josh Hazlewood has achieved the number-one position in the bowlers' rankings for the first time in his career in the latest MRF Tyres ICC ODI Player Rankings.
Trent Boult took two quick wickets after lunch to help New Zealand complete a 122-run victory over Sri Lanka on the fifth day of the first Test at University Oval in Dunedin on Monday.
India batsman Cheteshwar Pujara jumped a couple of rungs to second, while skipper Virat Kohli held on to the fifth spot in the latest ICC rankings for Test batsmen.
The series loss to South Africa notwithstanding, India held on to their second spot in the team list, while star batsman Virat Kohli rose up a rung to second in the batsmen's table of the latest ICC ODI cricket rankings.
Australia captain Steve Smith reached a career-high 939 rating points which are the sixth-best ever after Don Bradman (961), Len Hutton (945), Jack Hobbs and Ricky Ponting (both 942) and Peter May (941).
Steve Finn helped England dominate Australia in another Ashes Test at Edgbaston on Friday to take a 2-1 series lead. A day later, there were celebrations across China as Beijing won the rights to host the 2022 Winter Olympics. And, on Sunday, Premier League club Arsenal finally won bragging rights after beating Chelsea 1-0 to clinch the Community Shield to kick-start their season on a positive note. Rediff.com has all this and a lot more action from the week gone by, snapped right here!
Bayern Munich slumped to their first defeat for three months when the Bundesliga leaders suffered a shock 2-1 reverse at home to Mainz 05 on Wednesday.
Left-arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja's maiden 10-wicket match haul against England in Chennai has propelled him to second position behind teammate and India's star off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin in the ICC Test bowler rankings released on Wednesday.
Queensland cricket coach Stuart Law has said that he wants Joe Burns, who has replaced injured Mitchell Marsh in the Australia Test squad, to bat as high as possible in the order if he is picked to play the Boxing day Test against India.
Rajneesh Gupta profiles the cricketers playing the World Cup 2019.
'It's Test cricket and (Shannon) is an emotional guy trying to do everything he can to win a Test match. Sometimes people say things on the field that they might regret'
With this win, Australia have now gained a 12-2 lead in the series. The team had already secured the Ashes in the first T20I.
Boult took 6-33 as Australia, who only needed to square the series to retain the trophy, were dismissed for 257 on the final ball of the 47th over as they chased New Zealand's 281 for nine.
Dean Elgar made the most of being dropped early in his innings to score his seventh Test century and anchor South Africa's 229 for four at the close of play on the opening day of the first Test against New Zealand in Dunedin on Wednesday.
Ben Stokes smashed an unbeaten century as England outclassed World champions Australia by 40 runs via the Duckworth-Lewis method in a rain-hit match to knock them out of the ICC Champions Trophy, in Birmingham, on Saturday.
Dark sunglasses were the order of the day for Australia's triumphant cricket team.
Facing the prospect of a series defeat at home for the first time in 15 months, skipper Virat Kohli will have a relook at his team combination as hosts India take on a resurgent England in a do-or-die second T20 International, in Nagpur on Sunday.
Martin Guptill struck his third Test century while Kane Williamson fell just short his 13th as New Zealand blunted Sri Lanka's inexperienced bowling attack to set themselves up for a big total in the first Test in Dunedin on Thursday.
Rain prevented a result at Oval during the ICC Champions Trophy match, in London, on Monday.
Ashok Menaria produced an all-round show as India 'A' scored a convincing six-wicket victory over New Zealand 'A' in the second one-dayer between the countries to take an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match series in Visakhapatnam on Tuesday.
Rediff.com brings you a collection of some of the best sports images from around the world.
Brendon McCullum's dismissal in the final over of the day put Australia firmly in control of the first Test in Wellington on Sunday, as New Zealand were reduced to 178-4, still 201 runs behind the tourists' mammoth first innings of 562.