Joe Root's third hundred powered England to a five-wicket victory over Sri Lanka in the fifth One-day international in Pallekele on Thursday and kept alive their hopes in the seven-match series. After rain forced play to be suspended on Wednesday, the visitors returned to chase down a 240-run victory target and won with five balls to spare.
'We had a Plan A and B and C as well - it didn't click.'
Shahid Afridi, Shoaib Malik and Thisara Perera will be part of the World XI in the Twenty20 International against the West Indies, at Lord's on May 31, the ICC announced on Thursday.
After launching their campaign on a winning note, IPL finalists Kings XI Punjab will look to dish out another dominating performance when they face the formidable Barbados Tridents in a Group B match of the Oppo Champions League twenty20 in Mohali on Saturday.
Pakistan officials hope Sunday's match will encourage other countries to send their teams by next year.
World champions Sri Lanka held off an England fightback to win by nine runs in a Twenty20 international at the Oval on Tuesday helped by an explosive innings from Thisara Perera and superb bowling from Lasith Malinga.
England edged past Sri Lanka by 10 runs to reach the semi-finals of the World Twenty20 at the Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium in New Delhi, on Saturday.
Senior Sri Lankan batsman Dinesh Chandimal admitted that his side cannot always use 'transition phase' as an excuse for the team not doing well in recent times. Ahead of their World T20 cricket match against England on Saturday, Chandimal blamed on "inexperience of middle-order" for their inconsistent performances of late but he added that players need to "put their hands up and perform". "You cannot always say transition. We need to put our hands up. We will give our best shot in the next game," Chandimal said when asked whether a team comprising of Tillakaratne Dilshan, him, Chamara Kapugedara, Angelo Mathews and Thisara Perera can be termed as inexperienced.
Ajinkya Rahane steered Rising Pune Supergiants home with an unbeaten half-century as the visitors outclassed Delhi Daredevils by seven wickets to keep their hopes alive, in the Indian Premier League in Delhi, on Thursday.
India have surged to the second spot in the ICC's latest T20I rankings after they completed a 3-0 clean sweep over Sri Lanka in the shortest-format on Sunday.
India gave themselves a boost before next month's Twenty20 World Cup at home as Ravichandran Ashwin grabbed four wickets in their series-clinching nine-wicket victory over Sri Lanka in the third and final Twenty20 international on Sunday.
Images from Friday's World Cup match between South Africa and Sri Lanka, at Chester-le-Street.
Trent Boult produced an economical spell of bowling to take three wickets and help New Zealand to a tense three-run win over Sri Lanka in their first Twenty20 international on Thursday.
Deepak Chahar is the first Indian bowler ever to hold the record of best bowling figures in any format of international cricket (Test/ODI/T20I), points out Rajneesh Gupta.
Thisara admitted his side were far from perfect after another batting disaster, he insisted they always knew they had a chance of success if their bowlers stepped up.
Shardul Thakur knows that opportunities in a settled limited overs line-up won't come easily and that's the reason he is ready to 'step up' in an unenvious role of India's stop-gap third seamer in absence of Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Jasprit Bumrah.
Sri Lanka's chairman of selectors Sanath Jayasuriya has said that the hastily-arranged five-match ODI series in India, to be held in early next month, will help the fringe players prove their worth before next year's World Cup.
Kings XI Punjab would aim to keep the winning run going when they take on South Africa's Cape Cobras in a Group B encounter of the Champions League in Mohali on Sunday.
Eight teams have formed some of the best combinations from a pool of 64 top cricketers in the players' draft for T10League -- the limited ten-over format cricket -- that will be played at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium.
India captain Rohit Sharma on Sunday said his side would have overhauled even a bigger target in the third and final T20 International against Sri Lanka, though they needed to bat till the final over to chase down 136 for victory, which lifted them to a 3-0 series whitewash.
Check out the statistical highlights of the Cuttack T20I.
Sri Lanka interim coach Nic Pothas said toss and the no-ball dismissal of Upul Tharanga by Jasprit Bumrah were the defining moments of the match.
Yuvraj Singh's painstaking 21-ball 11 allowed Sri Lanka to regain the momentum and take home the ICC World T20 title.
India's quest for a historic treble ended in heartbreak as Sri Lanka came up with a clinical performance to beat them by six wickets in the final of the World T20 in Mirpur on Sunday. While Sri Lanka emerged third time lucky in a World T20 summit clash, Mahendra Singh Dhoni's hopes of adding a second World T20 title to the 50-over World Cup triumph in 2011 and Champions Trophy in England two years later ended in disappointment.
This is Tharanga's second ban in recent times after he suffered a similar two-match ban for slow over-rate in the Champions Trophy when he had led the side against South Africa in the absence of then-skipper Angelo Mathews.
Rohit Sharma registered the highest score in One-Day Internationals and also became the first in the history of cricket to hit two double centuries in the 50-overs' format in the fourth ODI against Sri Lanka, at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata.
Their pride bruised following disastrous campaigns, Kings XI Punjab and Rising Pune Supergiants will look for a graceful exit from the ninth edition of the IPL when they square off against each other for one last time in Visakhapatnam on Saturday. Supergiants are coming into the contest after a victory over Delhi Daredevils at the same venue, their home ground, while Punjab have lost their last two outings -- against RCB and table-toppers Sunrisers Hyderabad. Punjab's fourth and last win this season had come at this very ground, when they had got the better of Mumbai Indians.
World champions India have consolidated their top rank on the ICC ODI Team Rankings after sweeping the series against Sri Lanka, which concluded in Ranchi on Sunday.
Clinical India notched up another resounding win to humble a hapless Sri Lankan side by six wickets and clinch the five-match series in the third One-Day International in Hyderabad.
Pakistan beat Sri Lanka by six wickets to go 1-0 up in the five-match series.
'Regrettable and unacceptable' is how Sri Lanka Cricket chief Thilanga Sumathipala described the behaviour of the Bangladesh team during their do-or-die match against the hosts on Friday night.
Pakistan bowling came to the fore after Mohammad Hafeez's unbeaten fifty as they defeated World T20 defending champions Sri Lanka by 15 runs in their warmup match at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata on Monday. Hafeez struck an unbeaten 70 from 49 balls to help Pakistan post 157/5 before they restricted Sri Lanka for 142/9 in front of a cheering crowd of more than 10,000. Sri Lanka were wayward with their bowling especially in the death overs and bowled eight wide balls, including five from Dushmantha Chamara, further helping Pakistan's cause.
The likes of Virender Sehwag, David Miller and Glenn Maxwell have not managed to live up to expectations for Kings XI Punjab in IPL 8.
South Africa stormed into the semi-finals of the World Cup on Wednesday and nobody was more pleased than their Pakistan-born spinner Imran Tahir, who claimed 4-26 to mow down Sri Lanka's middle order in the quarter-final match at the Sydney Cricket Ground.
Boosted by their 3-0 clean sweep of Australia Down Under, a confident India would seek to continue their winning momentum when they take on a depleted and new-look Sri Lanka in the first of three T20 Internationals, in Pune, on Tuesday.
Images from the World Cup Group A match between Sri Lanka and Bangladesh in Melbourne.
.jpg)
Thisara Perera and Jeevan Mendis combined for a 58-run partnership to give Sri Lanka a nervous four-wicket victory over Afghanistan in their World Cup Pool A match at University Oval in Dunedin on Sunday.
India would be desperate for the likes of Mahendra Singh Dhoni to find some form ahead of the semi-final when they take on Sri Lanka in their last preliminary World Cup clash, in Leeds, on Saturday.
Kings XI Punjab may have shown their mettle, winning two games so far in the Oppo Champions League T20, but the team coach Sanjay Bangar said that there is still a scope for improvement.
After making impressive debuts in their respective openers, Rising Pune Supergiants and GujaratLions will test each others' strengths when the two new entrants clash in the Indian Premier League (IPL), in Rajkot on Thursday. The two teams feature a lot of faces from the suspended Chennai Super Kings and at least six players, who played in the same side till last year, will now be in opposite camps. Close friends and CSK teammates Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Suresh Raina will now be devising strategies as rival captains. Both have admitted that playing in a jersey other than 'yellow' has been very "emotional" but have promised to give their all for their new teams. The Dhoni-led Pune Supergiants were very convincing and dominant when they handed defending champions Mumbai Indians a nine-wicket drubbing. They did not even require their middle order, packed with Dhoni himself and players such as Steven Smith, to come out with the top-order delivering it for them comfortably.
© 2026 Rediff.com - Investor Information - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances