England battled back into contention on the third day of the second Test against West Indies as Mark Stoneman's first half century and captain Joe Root's unbeaten 45 helped wipe out a sizeable first-innings deficit on Sunday.
In a three part series, Rajneesh Gupta highlights all the important numbers from cricket World Cups held between 1975 to 2015.
Moeen Ali took three wickets on Wednesday as England made quick work of securing victory in the first Test by bundling out South Africa for 174 before lunch and ensure a 241-run victory on the last day at Kingsmead.
Mayank Agarwal hammered a 49-ball 87 as India 'A' beat the touring South Africans in their opening warm-up T20 game by eight wickets, with two balls to spare, at the Air Force ground, in Palam, Delhi, on Tuesday.
The 8th Champions Trophy begins in England this week. Rajneesh Gupta captures the tournament in all its statistical glory like only he can.
Desperate to get their campaigns back on track, the two bottom placed teams in the Indian Premier League -- Kings XI Punjab and Royal Challengers Bangalore -- lock horns in Mohali on Monday, aiming to keep their winning momentum going to stay afloat in the ninth edition of the T20 league.
India have won six ODI series on the trot. New Zealand have never won an ODI series in India.
United States coach Jurgen Klinsmann has turned to experience for next month's Copa America Centenario on home soil, but said he had to make some "very close, tight decisions" before announcing his 23-player squad on Saturday.
Expect a battle of wits when Royal Challengers Bangalore and Chennai Super Kings lock horns in Wednesday's Indian Premier League match in Bangalore.
After bagging the League Cup, being locked in a titanic battle with Liverpool for the Premier League title and in the Champions League quarter-finals, Pep Guardiola's side remain on course for an unprecedented clean sweep.
A floundering England will be looking to avoid a potential banana skin when they take on minnows Scotland in a crucial Pool A cricket World Cup match at the Hagley Oval, in Christchurch on Monday.
Kagiso Rabada became the youngest South Africa bowler to take seven wickets in an innings as the hosts took charge of the fourth and final Test against England on Sunday.
Strikers Marcus Rashford and Daniel Sturridge made Roy Hodgson's final 23-man England squad for Euro 2016 on Tuesday but winger Andros Townsend and midfielders Danny Drinkwater and Fabian Delph were left out. England are taking five forwards to the 24-team tournament in France, which starts on June 10, with Sturridge selected despite doubts over a calf problem. The injury had forced the Liverpool striker to miss England's last two friendly matches, including Friday's win over Australia in Sunderland. The 18-year-old Rashford, who signed a new long-term deal with Manchester United on Monday, became the youngest player to score on his England debut in the 2-1 win at the Stadium of Light. He scored that goal 138 seconds into what was only his 19th professional match, marking him out as one of the brightest emerging prospects and winning plaudits from Hodgson.
With India being outplayed in the Twenty20s, captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni will face added pressure to perform and lead India from the front against a formidable South African unit in the five-match ODI cricket series starting in Kanpur on Sunday.
Tottenham Hotspur missed the chance to move up to provisional fourth place in the Premier League after relegation-threatened Newcastle United held them to a 2-2 draw with a late equaliser from substitute Joe Willock at St James' Park on Sunday. Images from EPL matches played on Sunday.
Stokes was eventually dismissed for exactly 100 -- his sixth Test century -- with Kemar Roach (4-71) and Shannon Gabriel (4-51) the main wicket-takers as West Indies put their first-Test rout behind them.
Ben Stokes struck a sparkling unbeaten 74 to help England finish the opening day of the second Test against South Africa on a healthy 317 for five at Newlands on Saturday.
Opener Dean Elgar provided stubborn resistance as South Africa finished the second day of the first Test on 137 for four in reply to England's 303 at Kingsmead on Sunday.
Munaf Patel joins Kandy Tuskers in LPL; Sarfaraz pulls out, Malinga unsure
India's Shiv Kapur battled to a two-under-par 70 for tied 13th place at the half-way stage of the US$7 million CIMB Classic on Friday, knowing that he needs to shift into high gear to emerge as a legitimate contender. The 31-year-old, who holds one Asian Tour title under his belt, carded three birdies against a lone bogey at the Kuala Lumpur Golf and Country Club's West course where his two-day aggregate of five-under-par 139 left him eight shots behind leader Keegan Bradley of the United States.
Jermain Defoe's record of scoring on his first appearance for every club he has played for came to an end as Sunderland lost 2-1 at his former club Tottenham Hotspur in the Premier League on Saturday.
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.
Chris Gayle joined Hashim Amla and Sachin Tendulkar as only the third batsman in the history of ODI cricket to score centuries against 11 different countries, while Shimron Hetmyer hit his maiden century as the Windies defeated the United Arab Emirates by 60 runs in their opening Group A fixture of the ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifier 2018 at the Old Hararians in Harare on Tuesday.
Poland's Arkadiusz Milik scored the winner as they downed Northern Ireland 1-0 in their Euro 2016 Group C opening match in Nice on Sunday.
Perennial under-achievers Delhi Daredevils and Kings XI Punjab will look to recover from opening losses and put their campaign back on track.
England's right-back Kieran Trippier is one of the World Cup's top performers.
For the Proteas, the emphasis is on all 15 players instead of 11.
AB de Villiers confirmed his status as the most destructive batsman in cricket with a magnificent unbeaten 162 from just 66 balls to lead South Africa to a record 257-run victory over West Indies in the World Cup on Friday.
590 cricketers -- including 370 Indian players and 220 overseas players -- will go under the hammer during the two-day mega auction in Bengaluru on February 12 and 13.
Images from the English Premier League matches on Saturday.
Factbox on the cricket World Cup semi-final between New Zealand and South Africa at Eden Park, Auckland.
Featuring Gayle, Kohli, Root, Dilshan and Butler.
England's World Cup 2018 team, and remarkable similarities emerge between the XI expected to start the semi-final against Croatia
Srinivas Bhogle and Purnendu Maji figure out who are the most valuable players after the league phase of the World Cup intheir latest update.
England drew 0-0 with Slovakia on Monday to finish second in Euro 2016 Group B and qualify for the knockout phase behind Wales who beat Russia 3-0 in their final match.
Advancing into the Super 10 stage for the first time in three attempts, minnows Afghanistan will face a formidable challenge when they clash with South Africa in the ICC World Twenty 20 Championship at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Sunday.
South Africa put one foot in the World Cup quarter-finals by batting past the 400-run mark for the second successive match to hand Ireland a thumping defeat by 201 runs with five overs to spare at Manuka Oval on Tuesday.
As we write this we still await the crucial India-Australia knock-out in Mohali. But India's individual performances in the T20 World Cup so far haven't been truly impressive. A look at the most valuable player index (MVPI) table reveals that there's no Indian player in the top 20. MVPI merges a player's batting + bowling + fielding performance into a single 'run equivalent'. The formula to compute the MVP is devised to reward batsmen who score runs at a high strike rate, bowlers who take wickets at low economy rate and fielders who field the best (take a lot of catches and participate in run-outs). Since this is a relatively low scoring tournament we have assumed a team's par score to be 150, and each wicket to be worth 15 'runs'. It isn't a surprise that players from New Zealand dominate the rankings so far, although Joe Root tops the table after his 83 in 44 balls against South Africa.
A summary of sports events and sports persons, who made news on Thursday
Senior South Africa batsman J P Duminy defended his team's young bowling attack which failed to defend a decent total of 189 against an inexperienced India 'A' in their warm-up T20 game in Delhi on Tuesday, saying the focus was on assessment of conditions rather than the result.
