Indian players failed to make a mark as Australians and South Africans swept the International Cricket Council's (ICC) Annual Awards with Steve Smith clinching the coveted trophies of Cricketer of the Year and the Test Cricketer of the Year.
Former Sri Lanka captain Duleep Mendis once remarked that 'Murali' could turn the ball even on concrete and it was no exaggeration.
Rohit Sharma and Manish Pandey hit centuries as India 'A' amassed 382 for 6 against Sri Lanka in the tourists' first warm-up match at the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai on Thursday.
India may be weakened by the absence of captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, but the World champions cannot be taken lightly, especially with a strong batting line-up at their disposal, says Sri Lanka skipper Angelo Mathews.
Statistical highlights on the fifth and final day of the opening Test match between India and Sri Lanka, in Kolkata, on Monday.
The Indian captain, who has scored 544 runs in his eight innings this series, is 11th in the list of best ever in terms of rating points, just one adrift of a group of four -- Gary Sobers, Clyde Walcott, Vivian Richards and Kumar Sangakkara.
MI are coming into the match after suffering back-to-back losses
Take a look at top picks of all 10 IPL teams
Sri Lanka's Twenty20 captain and strike bowler Lasith Malinga has hinted that he might call time on his international career after the International Cricket Council World T20 in India as he is finding it difficult to manage a grave knee injury.
Mahela Jayawardene, batting with three stitches in his left hand, ignored the pain to complete his 32nd Test hundred and put Sri Lanka firmly in the driving seat in the second Test against Pakistan in Dubai on Thursday.
Kane Williamson hit a century and Luke Ronchi smashed 24 runs off one explosive over when the match was still in the balance to steer New Zealand to a four-wicket victory over Sri Lanka in the fourth One-Day International in Nelson on Tuesday.
Australian opener David Warner and veteran fast bowler Ryan Harris have moved up to career-high positions in the ICC Test player rankings following their impressive contributions in Australia's series-winning third Test defeat of South Africa in Cape Town.
Srinivas Bhogle and Purnendu Maji figure out who are the most valuable players after the league phase of the World Cup intheir latest update.
Mushfiqur Rahim, the diminutive Bangladesh glovesman has proved he is no less crucial to his team's progress.
Sri Lanka captain Angelo Mathews was vindicated for surprisingly deciding to field after winning the toss when his fast bowlers skittled Pakistan for 165 in the first innings of the second Test in Dubai on Wednesday. Sri Lanka then lost opener Dimuth Karunaratne (32) before reaching 57 for 1 when bad light brought an end to the day's play.
It may be Kumar Sangakkara's farewell game but the Indian team is all focused on previous match's centurion Dinesh Chandimal with leg-spinner Amit Mishra vowing not to allow a repeat show by the Sri Lanka batman in the second Test, starting in Colombo on Wednesday.
Images of the third day's play of the second Test between India and Sri Lanka being played in Colombo.
Undergoing a transition phase, defending champions Sri Lanka may not be in their elements in the build-up to the ICC World T20 but skipper Angelo Mathews today said it is good to carry the underdogs tag as it does not put the team under pressure. "The fact that we are coming as underdogs releases the pressure. Yes, we didn't do well in the Asia Cup but we're getting better day by day. I'm confident of my team's progress," Mathews said on the eve of their Super 10 opener against Afghanistan. Mathews said that his team needed just one win to get the momentum back. "We're not looking too far ahead at the moment and we will take one game at a time. We need one good game to get our momentum back," said the skipper. Afghanistan almost pulled off an upset during the 2015 World Cup in Australia when they threatened to chase down 237 before being bowled out for 232 in 49.4 overs and Mathews said Afghans were no more the minnows.
Off-spinner R Ashwin, who has been phenomenal in home conditions, has made it to the Test team as the 12th man, while pacer Mohammed Shami has been included in the ODI team.
The 2016 Caribbean Premier League (CPL) Player Draft was held in Barbados on Thursday, with the six franchises flexed their financial muscles to rope in their desired cricketers.
England coach Trevor Bayliss has dubbed his team's performance in the drawn first Test against India as "the best since he had been with the Alastair Cook-led team". Chasing an improbable target of 310 runs, Indian skipper Virat Kohli and all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja hung in as they remained unbeaten on 49 and 32 respectively in a tense final session to deny England victory at the Saurashtra Cricket Stadium on Sunday. Despite the outcome of the opening Test of the five-match series, Bayliss was impressed by the commitment his side had shown in gruelling conditions as well as on surfaces where England players generally struggle.
The off-spinner dismissed Sri Lanka captain Angelo Mathews with the final ball of his eighth over and returned to send back Nuwan Kulasekara and Tharindu Kaushal with the first two deliveries of his next to achieve the milestone in the first quarter-final of the World Cup.
Sohaib Maqsood and Fawad Alam struck quick-fire fifties and combined in a record 147-run sixth wicket stand as Pakistan defeated Sri Lanka by four wickets with one ball remaining in the first one-day international at Hambantota on Saturday.
Former India captain Rahul Dravid says the islanders may not be front-runners to win the World Cup this time around, but the fact that they are a very close-knit unit gives them the edge.
Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar believes that the youngest entrant in the illustrious 10,000 Test run club, Alastair Cook can challenge batting legend Sachin Tendulkar's all-time Test run record. Cook became the first England cricketer to cross the 10,000-run mark in Test cricket, and the youngest overall, beating Tendulkar's record by five months by reaching the milestone at the age of 31 years and five months. Tendulkar -- Test cricket's most prolific batsman with 15921 runs -- was 31 years, 10 months 20 days old when he scored his 10,000th run in 2005. "Well the big advantage that England always has is that they are always playing a minimum of 11-12 Test matches on an average in a year. In 11-12 Test matches even if you score 50 runs per Test match you are getting about 500 runs every year," Gavaskar said.
Ashwin termed Sri Lanka's tour of 2015 as a landmark for Indian team for their come-from-behind 2-1 series win. "In 2015, we were sandwiched into the middle of a leadership takeover. Virat had just taken over in Australia and we came here having played one Test in Bangladesh. We had set ourselves a lot of goals for each other and I would say we have achieved them and come out with flying colours over the last couple of years as a group"
Images from Day 1 in the third Test between India and Sri Lanka, in Colombo.
Chris Jordan claimed five wickets as England bowled Sri Lanka out for 67 runs, their third lowest total in one-day internationals, to help win the third ODI with a resounding 10-wicket victory on Wednesday.
Ravichandran Ashwin is the lone Indian to feature in the top 10 of the latest Reliance ICC Test Player Rankings as he continues to lead the way in the all-rounders list.
As we head to the head to the business end of the tournament, that involves three former champions, a look at the players who flattered to deceive, faltering under the weight of expectations, hurting their respective teams.
Pakistan fast bowlers Junaid Khan and Bilawal Bhatti scythed through Sri Lanka's batting during an exciting afternoon session to restrict their opponents to 204 on the first day of the opening Test in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday.
Opener Sam Robson hit his maiden Test century before Sri Lanka fought back with four late wickets on the second day of the second Test at Headingley, on Saturday.
An explosive unbeaten 85 from David Miller and some hostile bowling by the fast bowlers helped South Africa to beat Sri Lanka by 56 runs in Pallekele on Friday and stay alive in the five-match series.
The dominance of Saurashtra's bowlers could be gauged from the fact that Himachal lost their first seven wickets for just 22 runs.
Yuvraj Singh is hopeful that he can make a 'meaningful contribution' in India's Champions Trophy title defence during the June 1-18 marquee event in England.
Rajneesh Gupta presents some interesting numbers to take note of at the end of the first day's play in the third Test between India and South Africa.
Lasith Malinga is fit for Sri Lanka's opening World Cup clash against New Zealand.
Virat Kohli and Bhuvneshwar Kumar are India's highest-ranked batsman and bowler in third and 13th positions respectively.
A selection of musings from around the cricket World Cup.
'Did the Moneyball philosophy get redefined in the domain of the cash-rich IPL, which has become an integral part of the cricketing ecosystem?' asks Atanu Biswas.
