Harish Kotian/Rediff.com assesses the Indian side after the 2-1 series triumph in Sri Lanka.
India beat South Africa by 124 runs in the third Test in Nagpur,inside three days, to take an unassailable 2-0 lead in the four-match series on Friday. Rajneesh Gupta presents interesting numbers from day three of Nagpur Test.
Rajneesh Gupta has some interesting numbers from the second day's play in the third Test between India and South Africa at Nagpur.
Karnataka sealed a berth in the final the Ranji Trophy after the fifth and last day of their semi-final against Punjab was washed out, in Mohali, on Wednesday. They entered the final by the virtue of the first innings lead, and will take on Maharashtra at Hyderabad from January 29.
India will seek to reaffirm their supremacy in the shorter version of the game as they go into a five-match ODI series against an under-strength West Indies in Kochi with the prime focus of preparing for the upcoming cricket World Cup.
The weather gods gave West Indies a lifeline in their quest to avoid defeat in the second Test against India when rain washed out the final session of day three in Kingston, Jamaica on Monday.
Bruised and battered by India after being bundled out for a meagre 79 while chasing 270 in the series-deciding fifth and final ODI here, New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson termed the performance of his batting department as "frustrating". Williamson said the Kiwi batsmen did not justify to lose eight wickets for just 16 runs. "That's what's so frustrating, because we failed as a batting unit. The spinners of the Indian side bowled very well but I don't think it is justified to lose 8 wickets for 16 runs. We need to look at some of our plans. There was turn in the pitch in some other games too but we were able to handle it better then," Williamson said after their massive 190-run defeat in the fifth and final ODI in Vizag.
If India toyed with the South Africans, it was mainly because of awesome performances from spinners Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja.
So overwhelming was India's domination in the series, that Zimbabwe's most valuable player, Elton Chigumbura, is only seventh in the combined list with a MVPI of just 175, according to Srinivas Bhogle and Purnendu Maji.
Srinivas Bhogle and Purnendu Maji identify the Most Valuable Players in the IPL at the end of Match 59.
Meanwhile, an independent MLA in Gujarat has declared his support to the BJP.
Ganguly, only the second Indian captain to take charge as the BCCI chief, sounded a pleased man on his first day at his new office at the BCCI head office
With the exit polls predicting a victory for the National Democratic Alliance, Gujarat Bharatiya Janata Party leaders on Tuesday went into a huddle, triggering speculations about finding a successor to Narendra Modi, but the party dismissed such conjectures and described the talks as "routine".
For a visiting cricketer, an India tour conjures up the image of a batsman surrounded by a shoal of fielders and facing relentless spin from both ends and South Africa should not expect anything different in the four-test series starting on Thursday.
Former India star batsman VVS Laxman prefers all-rounder Hardik Pandya over Karun Nair in the playing XI for the first Test match against England, considering his all-round skill sets. Laxman is a firm believer of the "five bowler theory" and wants Pandya to open the bowling with Mohammed Shami, with Amit Mishra playing as the third specialist spinner.
The Gujarat government on Tuesday said the upcoming 'World Yoga Day' on June 21 will be celebrated at more than 29,000 locations across the state.
For anyone, who has followed Jayant Yadav over the years, his maiden Test century won't come as a surprise. - Scorecard Brought into the Indian team primarily as an off-spinner, Haryana's Yadav boasts of an impressive first class record with the bat -- having scored 1665 runs in 44 matches at an average of nearly 30, comprising of two centuries. With the ball too he has a very good record, claiming 125 wickets in 44 games and recently did well during India A's tour of Australia where he took seven wickets in the two four-day unofficial Test matches.
Comprehensively outplayed by South Africa in both the T20 internationals of the just-concluded three-match series, India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni said that he does not want a lot of grass cover for the upcoming five-match ODI series, beginning October 11 in Kanpur.
Images from Day 1 of the first Test between India and South Africa in Mohali, on Thursday.
Senior off-spinner Harbhajan Singh feels captain Virat Kohli and chief coach Anil Kumble have got a chance to usher in a new era where Indian cricket teams will not require 'rank turners' to win matches as the long-used tactic is beginning to boomerang on the side.
All-rounder Ben Stokes lived a charmed life to register his fourth century as England punished a sloppy India to post a huge first innings total on the second day of the opening Test in Rajkot, on Thursday.
Dhoni returns to the Indian dressing room after three months and for him the series will be start of the preparation for next year's World Twenty20, that will be hosted by India.
India came up with a clinical all-round display to beat Pakistan by seven wickets in a one-sided opening Super-10 league match of the ICC World Twenty20 in Mirpur on Friday.
The Indian selectors finally lost patience with the under-performing pace duo Ishant Sharma and R Vinay Kumar and ignored them for the upcoming three-match One Day International series against the West Indies.
India were set a tricky target of 176 runs to win the first Test against Sri Lanka after Dinesh Chandimal produced a counter-attacking unbeaten 162 to lead a spirited fightback for the hosts in Galle.
Pacer Ishant Sharma retained his place despite his struggle for form as India named an unchanged squad, which played in the first three ODIs, for the remaining four games in the seven-match series against Australia.
Inclement weather poses a threat to the India-Australia T20 international in Rajkot on Thursday, with the Met department forecasting rainfall over the next 48 hours.
Under-fire Mahendra Singh Dhoni marked his return to form with an unbeaten 92 as India recorded a 22-run victory over South Africa in the second One-Day International to level the five-match series 1-1 at the Holkar Cricket Stadium, in Indore, on Wednesday.
Talented Mumbai batsman Rohit Sharma made a comeback to the Test squad for the West Indies series, which will also mark the farewell and landmark 200th Test of batting icon Sachin Tendulkar, next month.
Off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin grabbed five for 52 as Indian bowlers dominated the proceedings to bowl out West Indies for a meagre 196 on Day 1 of the second Test in Jamaica.
'We did not know we would one day dominate nearly 70 per cent of the market.' 'Today, of 100 diamonds available for trade in Antwerp, 93 are cut and polished in India.' A fascinating excerpt from Shantanu Guha Ray's The Diamond Trail: How India Rose To Global Domination.
'Somewhere along the way, elected office-bearers appeared to have lost sight of the interest of cricket and begun to pursue their own interpretation of what the game should be.' 'Families made it a tradition to have their representatives occupy, if not usurp, positions in state associations,' points out Vinod Rai, who will step down as head of the BCCI's Committee of Administrators on Wednesday, October 23.
The national selection committee, under Sandeep Patil, is likely to leave it to limited-overs' captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni to decide on his availability for the short tour of Zimbabwe, from June 11-20.
India put up yet another clinical display to best defending champions West Indies with a commanding seven-wicket victory in a group league encounter to brighten their chance of a semi-final berth in the ICC World T20 in Mirpur on Sunday.
India recovered to 234 for five at stumps on Day One of the third Test against the West Indies, courtesy an unbeaten 108-run stand between Ravichandran Ashwin and Wriddhiman Saha.
Impressed with India's aggressive brand of cricket in the two Tests so far, former Sri Lanka pacer Chaminda Vaas on Tuesday said that the five-bowler theory is reaping rich results for the young visiting side.
In an extraordinary twist to the game, India on Saturday capitulated to an embarassing 63-run defeat in the first cricket Test against Sri Lanka.
Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar is of the view that young left-arm spinner Axar Patel is not Test cricket material and, at best, 'a roller of the ball'.
India paid the price for costly blunders at crucial junctures to suffer a nerve-wracking one-wicket defeat at the hands of arch rivals Pakistan, who rode on Shahid Afridi's brilliant cameo to virtually assure themselves a berth in the final of the Asia Cup in Mirpur on Sunday.
The series already in their pocket and the number one ranking cemented, a dominant India go into the third Test against New Zealand in Indore on Saturday, aiming yet another clean sweep of a Test rubber at home. The hosts had blanked Australia 4-0 in 2012-13 and the West Indies in the next season. They nearly repeated the feat against South Africa last year and this impressive history in recent past makes India favourites in the first-ever Test being hosted by this city which has a long tradition in the game.
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