The Indian cricket team will start its new year with a tour to South Africa, which is likely to commence on January 5 or 6 in Cape Town.
Namrata Thakker recaps stellar Indian fashion moments on the Met Gala red carpet.
Australia left-arm spinner Ashton Agar took a career-best 5-24, including a hat-trick, as they thrashed hosts South Africa by a massive 107 runs in the first Twenty20 International at The Wanderers in Johannesburg on Friday. After being sent in to bat, Australia amassed 196 for six in their 20 overs as South Africa struggled with their line and length and missed a number of catches in the field in what was a sloppy display. The home side were in early trouble in their reply when they lost mainstay Quinton de Kock in the first over and it became a precession after that as Agar helped bowl the hosts out for 89, a record low for South Africa.
Kagiso Rabada proved the destroyer-in-chief with 4-103, assisted by Anrich Nortje who took three wickets for 56 runs as England fell short by 107 runs.
With 59 matches spread across 10 cities, the cash-rich league starting Saturday will unearth new domestic talents apart from giving some of the tried and tested faces a shot at redemption during the next seven weeks of what is again expected to be a perfect marriage of cricket and entertainment.
In the 35 Tests Kohli has led as captain, he has fielded 35 different playing 11s. Sure, the chopping and changing worked in the sub-continent because the home conditions masked the deficiencies in constantly chopping and changing the playing 11, says Chetan Narula.
India aim to stay afloat against daunting South Africa in the second Test
An 'energised' Dale Steyn has passed his fitness tests and will play for South Africa in their three-match Twenty20 International series against Australia starting in Durban on Friday.
South Africa's Anrich Nortje took the vital wickets of captain Joe Root and talisman Ben Stokes as England struggled to 262 for nine at stumps on the first day of the second Test on Friday. Pace bowler Nortje, playing his fourth Test, finished with 2-54 off 17 overs as the home side restricted the tourists on a Newlands wicket that was expected to be full of runs. Images from the opening day of the second Test at Newlands on Friday.
Australian batsmen David Warner and Cameron Bancroft signed up for a limited overs tournament in Northern Territory in July as they look to return to cricket in the wake of the ball-tampering scandal which saw them banned from the national team.
Australia's dramatic collapse against South Africa at the weekend has drawn inevitable comparisons with their previous Test defeat but vanquished coach Darren Lehmann says the two losses were vastly different.
Australian cricket must move on from the damaging ball tampering scandal and the team could not have found a better coach to help them achieve that than Justin Langer, his predecessor Darren Lehmann has said.
Cheteshwar Pujara, a vital cog in India's batting wheel, on Tuesday, stressed on the importance of leaving the ball on the bouncy pitches of South Africa during the three-Test series beginning, in Cape Town, on Friday.
Australia's senior bowlers must step up to help captain Tim Paine lead an inexperienced team during their next tour against Pakistan, pace spearhead Mitchell Starc has said.
'Hamas is going to be prepared. There will be booby traps and tunnels; it's going to be door to door fighting.'
Cricket Australia (CA) has slapped 12-month bans on Steve Smith and David Warner, while suspending Cameron Bancroft, who was caught using a piece of sandpaper on the ball in the Cape Town Test, for nine months following the controversy which rocked cricket in Australia.
'It's a stain on the game we all love and I have loved since I was a boy'
Sachin Tendulkar said that Cricket Australia has taken the 'right decision' in banning captain Steve Smith and his deputy David Warner for one year after being found guilty of ball-tampering against South Africa during the Cape Town.
According to cricket.com.au: "Renshaw will fly to Johannesburg this evening to join the under siege tourists ahead of Friday's final Test against South Africa in the wake of the Cape Town ball-tampering crisis."
England restricted South Africa to 256 for seven in 50 overs. Joe Denly top-scored with 66, reaching their target with 40 balls to spare to claim a share of the series after the second game was washed out by rain.
Hashim Amla struck an unbeaten half-century as South Africa brushed aside some early alarms to record a six wicket victory over Pakistan on day three of the first Test at Centurion Park on Friday.
South Africa fast bowler Dale Steyn is targeting a return to Test cricket in the third match of the series against Australia this month, he said on Tuesday.
South Africa have not asked for quick pitches to be prepared for their four-Test series against Australia, which starts in Durban on Thursday, after the ploy backfired just over a month ago, captain Faf du Plessis said on Wednesday.
"... they're (India) up against a really talented young Australian cricket team who have got plenty to prove'
The intense interest in the incident around the world reflects not only surprise at Steve Smith blithely admitting the conspiracy to cheat but also a perception that the Australian team are serial offenders in bending and breaking the rules.
Michael Clarke has branded a prominent Australian sports journalist a 'headline chasing coward' in a rant on social media after the broadcaster linked the Cape Town ball-tampering scandal with cultural failings during his captaincy.
South Africa have recalled fit-again batsman AB de Villiers to captain their one-day international side in the five-match home series against Sri Lanka.
Cheteshwar Pujara said his side's first innings 187 was "like scoring 300 on any normal pitch" and puts them on top after the opening day of the third and final Test against South Africa on Wednesday.
ICC's proposal to introduce four-day Tests has met with stiff opposition
England are thinking of bringing a specialist spinner back into the line-up after going with an all-pace attack in their last two outings, coach Chris Silverwood said as they arrived in Cape Town for their second Test against South Africa starting on Friday. That means a seamer such as record wicket-taker James Anderson or Stuart Broad may be dropped for a contest expected to be played on a much flatter deck than the first Test in Pretoria, which South Africa won by 107 runs inside four days on Sunday.
South Africa pacer Morne Morkel feels that the post-tea sessions will hold the key with the Proteas bowlers looking to inflict maximum damage on the Indian batsmen late in the day.
The International Cricket Council, on Friday, decided to allocate some special assistance fund to Pakistan Cricket Board considering the financial issues that the board is facing in absence of international cricket in the country.
'The guys were really clinical, and I think the way Dean led with the bat was phenomenal. He made sure he stayed in to a built partnerships with the other batters around him.'
South Africa's talismanic captain AB de Villiers has recovered from injury and been included in the Proteas squad for the One-day series at home against Australia starting later this month.
A Test series against India, a World Cup on home soil and a much-anticipated Ashes campaign will put Australia's cricketers under heavy scrutiny over the next year, but the team need to make themselves oblivious to the hype, according to captain Michael Clarke.
South Africa are to gamble on the fitness of Quinton de Kock and JP Duminy, who were named on Wednesday in a 15-man squad for the Cricket World Cup in Australia and New Zealand next month.
Warner leads the run-getters' list and has also notched three consecutive 100-run partnership for the opening wicket with Englishman Jonny Bairstow, who scored a blistering 114 against Bangalore.
South African pacer Dale Steyn says he is hoping to be up and running in the next six weeks after recovering from the muscle tear in his left heel which has ruled him out of the ongoing three-Test series against India.
The former Test vice-captain returned to the field in a recent Twenty20 tournament in Canada and followed that up with his first appearance in Australia on Saturday in a limited-overs competition in Darwin.
