India thrashed New Zealand by 53 runs to give veteran fast bowler Ashish Nehra a winning farewell, in the first Twenty20 International in New Delhi on Wednesday.
Gujarat Lions will have their task cut out when they lock horns with Sunrisers Hyderabad.
Rajneesh Gupta profiles the cricketers playing the World Cup 2019.
Youngsters including Shreyas Iyer, Karun Nair, keeper-batsman Rishabh Pant, teen sensation Prithvi Shaw will be keen to make a mark and impress the national selectors during Tuesday's One-Day warm-up against New Zealand in Mumbai.
It was not an ideal preparation, but New Zealand made good use of their time in the middle against a mediocre Mumbai attack on Day 1 of their only warm-up match ahead of the three-Test series against India.
Some teams have completely overhauled their squads. Others retained their core at the IPL Players Auction.
Teams play safe, retain star players, total purse at Rs 148 crore versus Rs 198 crore last year
Rajneesh Gupta presents the numbers from the first Test.
Aruneel Sadadekar/Rediff.com lists five matches you can't afford to miss out at the ICC's marquee event.
England all-rounder Ben Stokes became the most expensive overseas purchase -- bought by Rising Pune Supergiants for a whopping Rs 14.50 crore even as some unheralded Indian domestic players trumped seasoned names to land lucrative deals at the Indian Premier League players' auction.
Srinivas Bhogle and Purnendu Maji analyse Week 3 of IPL-11 in Rediff.com's Most Valuable Players ratings.
It will be a battle for survival for struggling Rising Pune Supergiants when they lock horns with formidable title-contenders Sunrisers Hyderabad in Tuesday's Indian Premier League match in Visakhapatnam.
Batsman Ajinkya Rahane is expecting the Kanpur wicket to assist the Indian spinners and says the team's performance in the first Test will set the tone for a long home season, comprising 13 five-day games.
Table-toppers Sunrisers Hyderabad will look to quickly bounce back from the disappointing loss against Delhi Daredevils and seal their place in the play-off when they take on a resurgent Kings XI Punjab in an IPL clash in Mohali on Sunday. Knowing that there is scramble among top teams for the playoff berth and holding on to top position is not an easy task, SRH will have to put the loss against Delhi behind and look to put up an all-round performance on Sunday. What has made this game at the I S Bindra PCA stadium even more important for Hyderabad is the fact that Punjab, which has struggled through the tournament, has suddenly started turning over a leaf under their new captain Murali Vijay, whose appointment was made mid-way. The Punjab outfit, which is lying at the seventh place with four wins from 11 outings, pulled off a comprehensive seven-wicket victory against Mumbai Indians at Visakhapatnam on Friday night.
The Indian cricket team went from strength to strength in 2019, especially in Test cricket where they are rightly perched at the top. They went unbeaten in Test cricket in 2019 which included winning their first-ever series in Australia, after which they registered three successive whitewashes against West Indies, South Africa and Bangladesh.
Two-time champions Kolkata Knight Riders would look to assert their supremacy, while Sunrisers Hyderabad will have revenge on mind when the two teams clash in the Indian Premier League (IPL) Eliminator in New Delhi on Wednesday. Both Sunrisers and KKR finished their league engagements on 16 points each but the Gautam Gambhir-led side ended fourth behind Sunrisers due to inferior net run rate. But going into the do-or-die game, KKR have psychological advantage over the Sunrisers having beaten them on both the occasions during the league stage. KKR thrashed Sunrisres by eight wickets in their first meeting this season and came out victorious by 22 runs in a must-win match last Sunday to qualify for the play-offs.
India's limited overs captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni said the job of a finisher is one of the toughest and it is difficult to find a 'complete' player who is adept at batting in lower order and take the team through when the chips are down.
Gujarat Lions will have to fight off the fiery pacers of the Sunrisers Hyderabad when the two teams clash in the Indian Premier League Qualifier 2, in New Delhi, on Friday.
Srinivas Bhogle and Purnendu Maji list the 50 most valuable IPL-11 players.
Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli scored classy hundreds to fire India to a record 337 for six in the third One-Day International against New Zealand, in Kanpur, on Sunday.
K L Rahul, the kingpin of the KXIP batting, is second (MVPI: 601), followed by Sunrisers Captain Kane Williamson (543). Jos Buttler, after his match-winning batting for Rajasthan Royals on Friday night, is just 4 'runs' behind at 539, and M S Dhoni is fifth with 538 'runs'.
Facing early elimination, two-time champions Kolkata Knight Riders need to record a win to stay afloat when they take on table-toppers Sunrisers Hyderabad.
India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni said 'losing wickets against the run of play' while chasing a tricky target led to the home team's defeat against New Zealand in the second ODI, in New Delhi, on Thursday.
Rediscovering himself in the twilight of his career, a rejuvenated Mahendra Singh Dhoni would look to continue his regained form and guide India to a series-clinching win when the hosts take on New Zealand in the fourth One-Day International, in Ranchi, on Wednesday.
For the Gujarat Lions to roar, their top-heavy batting order must first win in unison against a consistent KKR bowling attack.
Anderson becomes number-one ranked Test bowler
He could be overtaken by Sunrisers Hyderabad Captain Kane Williamson (760) or Kolkata Knight Riders all-rounder Sunil Narine (703) or even the intrepid Ambati Rayadu (675) of the Chennai Super Kings.
The astronomical fee paid for Ben Stokes at the IPL auction is a confirmation of his status as the modern game's finest all-rounder.
At the face of it, there is apparently no danger to Dhoni's captaincy since the team is still winning matches. But if one digs deeper, Kohli has slowly and surely been the man everyone is looking forward to as the leader, across all formats for India.
A formidable Indian cricket team is likely to revel in home conditions, as they prepare to host and dominate New Zealand in the first Test in Kanpur, from Thursday, heralding the beginning of a long 13-match home season.
The players auctions for this year's IPL is scheduled for this weekend. Rajneesh Gupta looks at the players retained and released by the teams for IPL 2017.
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.
In terms of days, Dale Steyn has spent 2,320 days at the top of the ICC Player Rankings for Test Bowlers, the most by any bowler since World War II.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni's leadership as well as finishing skills will be put through a stern test when an inconsistent India take on a rejuvenated New Zealand in the series-deciding fifth and final cricket ODI in Visakhapatnam on Saturday. With the series locked at 2-2, Dhoni and his men will be eager to clinch the issue while history beckons Kane Williamson's men as they have a glorious opportunity to taste their maiden success in a bilateral ODI rubber. The only thing that can play spoilsport is the cyclone threat which can lead to complete washout.
Rajneesh Gupta's fascinating look at the routes RCB and Sunrisers Hyderabad took to the IPL 9 final.
India off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin surged to the top of the MRF Tyres ICC Player Rankings for Test Bowlers after a superb outing in the first Test against the West Indies in Antigua which the visiting side won by an innings and 92 runs.
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.
Virat Kohli produced another breathtaking effort as his superbly crafted unbeaten 154 enabled India to cruise to an easy seven-wicket victory in the third ODI against New Zealand, in Mohali, on Sunday.
As the top 10 teams prepare to battle for the World T20 crown, Rajneesh Gupta breaks down each squad's T20 performance and their showing in previous editions of the event.
351 cricketers -- 230 Indians and 131 foreigners -- will go under the hammer in Saturday's IPL players' auction.
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