Rediff.com presents the best catches from the eighth edition of the IPL.
Robin Uthappa and Andre Russell struck belligerent fifties after veteran Brad Hogg's four-wicket haul to help Kolkata Knight Riders return to winning ways with a seven-wicket win over Chennai Super Kings in a thrilling Indian Premier League match in Kolkata, on Thursday.
David Warner played a captain's knock, smashing an unbeaten 90 runs off 59 balls to power the Sunrisers Hyderabad to a 7-wicket convincing victory against defending champions Mumbai Indians on Monday. Chasing a modest 143-run target, the Sunrisers chased the target with 15 balls to spare in Hyderabad. The Sunrisers have recorded their first points in the points table of IPL 9, while MI have now lost three out of their last four games.
India will look for another colossal victory and inch closer to the semi-finals when they square off against an embattled Bangladesh.
India's champions from the last edition who will be missed when the action commences in Australia-New Zealand next year.
Round-up of the Ranji Trophy matches being played in different parts of the country.
The perfect buildup and distinct home advantage certainly gives India an edge heading into the World Twenty20 Championship but captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni said his team cannot afford to take things for granted given the format's fickle nature. India blanked Australia in their own backyard, beat Sri Lanka at home before capturing the Asia Cup in Bangladesh. In the course of these triumphs, Dhoni's men lost just one game making it the near-perfect build-up campaign for the team which won the inaugural Championship back in 2007. "I think we are running on sixth gear. Technology has gone into the eighth gear but the kind of stuff we are doing on the field is adequate for any level of game. "We have to see the focus should be on from the very first ball. I think everything is set, there're not anymore gears to operate on. I am really quite happy with the progress," Dhoni said at the pre-tournament news conference where the main draw matches will start on March 15. India will be up against New Zealand in their opening match in Nagpur on March 15. "Let's not say it's happening in India so it belongs to us. Especially in the shorter formats, the difference becomes smaller and smaller. Every team has a chance, if we play to our potential and execute our plans then we definitely have a chance."
Rajneesh Gupta presents a complete statistical IPL dossier.
The former opening batsman picked India, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand as the four semi-finalists in the upcoming tournament Down Under.
India have won all their six games against Pakistan in the World Cup.
351 cricketers -- 230 Indians and 131 foreigners -- will go under the hammer in Saturday's IPL players' auction.
Debutant Hardik Pandya stellar performance in Tuesday's T20 International against Australia caught the attention of India supporters, and India's ODI skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni said the youngster can lend the side some much-needed stability if he performs consistently.
A clutch of Indian stars led by India and Royal Challengers Bangalore captain Virat Kohli are either sidelined or ruled out of this edition of the tournament, lessening the wow factor of the IPL.
Rajneesh Gupta highlights all the important numbers from cricket World Cups held between 1975 to 2015.
The youngest president of the Indian cricket board in India in independent India, Anurag Thakur has taken over the reins of the world's richest cricketing body at a time it is fighting an existential battle against a complete restructuring recommended by the Supreme Court.
India have won six ODI series on the trot. New Zealand have never won an ODI series in India.
India defeated Pakistan by six wickets in a Super 10 Group 2 match to record their first win in the ICC World Twenty20 in Kolkata on Saturday. Virat Kohli scored an unbeaten 55 to guide India home in their chase of 119.
He along with Sunrisers' bowling coach and spin legend Muthiah Muralitharan were seen engaging in an intense planning from the dug-out when Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers were batting in full-flow at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium on Tuesday. Sunrisers batting coach VVS Laxman may be disappointed with his team's defeat in the first game of IPL 9, but the legendary Indian batsman had special praise for U-19 star and RCB finisher Sarfaraz Khan. Laxman also feels that it was Sarfaraz, who took the game away from them, when the 'enormously talented' Mustafizur Rahman had pulled it back by dismissing AB and Watson in quick succession. Here is what Laxman had to say after the match.
The legend of Virat Kohli reached gigantic proportions as the reigning superstar of Indian cricket virtually made the World Twenty20 a one-man show.
Bangladesh all-rounder Mahmdullah finished as the MVP in the recently-concluded Asia Cup T20 tournament ahead of compatriot Sabbir Rahman, who was named as the man of the series. Purnendu Maji and Srinivas Bhogle present the latest edition of the MVP rankings.
'We will have to try and give batting to players, who have not batted so far but people who are batting close to 6, 7 or 8, they will have to play big shots because that is going to be certainly be very important for us' 'It's something that will always trouble us till we are certain that these are the set of bowlers who will bowl in death for us'
Sri Lanka defeated India by five wickets in the first Twenty20 international cricket match to take a 1-0 lead in the three-match series, in Pune on Tuesday. Chasing a modest target of 102 runs set by India, Lankan skipper Dinesh Chandimal led from the front scoring 35 runs off as many balls, while Milinda Sriwardana's unbeaten 21 runs off 14 balls ensured a comparatively young visiting squad secured a morale-boosting victory.
In opting for an extra spinner, says Harish Kotian/Rediff.com, India have picked a batsman less.
'Dhoni may be hoping that luck stays with him for a couple of months more.' 'He may want to step down on a triumphant note, holding aloft the World T20 trophy on April 3.'
Srinivas Bhogle and Purnendu Maji present Rediff.com's Most Valuable Player ratings for the ongoing IPL 8.
A look at the 10 cricketers who were punished for drug related offences.
A round-up of results from the matches played at the Mushtaq Ali Twenty20 cricket tournament across the country.
Brothers Krunal and Hardik Pandya excelled with the bat and ball respectively as Baroda crushed Punjab by 75 runs in a Vijay Hazare Trophy Group A match.
Virat Kohli's inspirational leadership for Royal Challengers Bangalore will be up against the brute force with which David Warner has steered Sunrisers Hyderabad when the two teams, eyeing their maiden IPL title, square off in a high-intensity summit clash in Bengaluru on Sunday. RCB, however, will have a slight advantage over Sunrisers as they have the experience of playing in an IPL final twice in the past -- 2009 and 2011, but on both occasions, they had finished runners-up. Sunrisers' best finish was a play-off berth which they managed in their debut season in 2013.
India edged out Bangladesh by one run in a thrilling World Twenty20 match on Wednesday to keep alive their hopes of reaching the semi-finals.
Jolted by the shock loss to New Zealand in the opening game, India will be fighting a survival battle quite early in the tournament when they take on arch foes Pakistan in what is being seen as the marquee clash of the ICC World Twenty20 in Kolkata on Saturday. The hosts, who started clear title-favourites, were in for a blow in the first match itself when New Zealand's spinners bamboozled their famed batting line-up on a turning Nagpur track. As a result, the world No.1 side is staring at an early elimination should it lose to Pakistan in the high-voltage game at the Eden Gardens. As is the case with most India-Pakistan contests, this game too has been preceded by its share of drama. The match was originally scheduled to be held in Dharamsala but was shifted here after the Himachal Pradesh government expressed inability to provide security to the Pakistan team owing to protests by ex-servicemen and their families.
With momentum on their side, Dhoni and Co need to justify the favorites' tag and go the distance.
He has been Virat Kohli's go to bowler on unresponsive Indian tracks and seasoned pacer Umesh Yadav credits his "enormous mental strength" for keeping him in the game despite a stop-start international career for the past 10 years. The 32-year-old Vidarbha speedster with more than 250 international wickets (259) across formats, doesn't feel the need to respond to perceptions of being a Test specialist as the time spent away from the 22-yard pitch is more about honing skills and remaining battle-ready.
If India can boast of Virat Kohli then the West Indies have a far more dangerous player in Chris Gayle, who has achieved a legendary status in T20 cricket with his ability to win matches on his own on a consistent basis.
Suresh Raina blasted a blistering century pulverising Kolkata Knight Riders into submission as Chennai Super Kings exacted a sweet revenge clinching the Oppo Champions League T20 in style with a eight-wicket victory in a thoroughly one-sided final, in Bangalore.
Winning is all what matters to Kolkata Knight Riders captain Gautam Gambhir as he intends to be "mean winner than a polite loser" when the reigning IPL champions take part in the upcoming Oppo Champions League Twenty20.
It will be a different sort of challenge for Mahendra Singh Dhoni when he captains a new-look Indian cricket team against Zimbabwe in the first ODI of a short series starting in Harare on Saturday.
Harish Kotian/Rediff.com picks five performances that took spectators' breaths away in week 9: Five wonderful knocks and one magical spell of bowling.
Harish Kotian/Rediff.com comes up with a pretty strong playing eleven from the long list of big names warming the benches this IPL season.
India turned in a fine all-round show to beat Australia by 27 runs in the second Twenty20 International and take an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match series at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, on Friday.
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