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.
Fakhar Zaman and Mohammad Amir shone as Pakistan defied the odds to overwhelm arch-rivals India by 180 runs and pull off a major upset in the ICC Champions Trophy final.
Pakistan all-rounder Shahid Afridi produced a brilliant performance with both bat and ball to lead his team to a thumping 126-run victory over West Indies in their first One-day International on Sunday.
Both the teams lost their opening matches but bounced back into reckoning after producing two of the tournament's biggest upsets so far.
Pakistan has failed to take concrete action to keep a lid on banned militant outfits like Hafiz Saeed-led Lashkar-e-Tayiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad which continuously resurface under new names challenging the government's authority, a media report said on Wednesday.
Kolkata Knight Riders skipper Gautam Gambhir chose not to be harsh on his fielders, who missed chances galore in Sunday's Champions League Twenty20 contest against Lahore Lions, saying the team has worked hard in its impressive 11-match winning streak.
Pakistan have named Azhar Ali as their One-day captain following the retirement of Misbah-ul-Haq from One-Day Internationals after this month's World Cup.
Pakistan pacer Mohammad Aamir was Friday booed on his return to international cricket by the crowd during the first Twenty20 match against New Zealand in Auckland. The 23-year-old left-arm pacer was making his first appearance for Pakistan since returning from a five-year ban and jail time for being implicated in a spot-fixing scandal in 2010. Pakistan defeated the hosts by 16 runs to take a 1-0 lead in the three-match series, with Mohammad Hafeez scoring 61 as they reached 171 for eight. Shahid Afridi's astute captaincy coupled with an all-round effort, helped Pakistan overcome New Zealand's challenge.
England, who have won both the one-day and Twenty20 series against Sri Lanka, play a two-day practice match in Colombo before heading to Galle which hosts the first of the three Test matches from November 6.
Umar Akmal played a stunning cameo of 18-ball unbeaten 38 as Lahore Lions beat defending champions Mumbai Indians by six wickets in their opening qualifying round match of the Champions League Twenty20 in Raipur on Saturday.
South Africa beat Pakistan by 28 runs after Quinton de Kock scored his maiden one-day international hundred and Dale Steyn posted his best ever match figures in the fourth game of the series in the United Arab Emirates on Friday.
Penpix of the Pakistan squad for the 2015 cricket World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.
Former pacer Shoaib Akhtar says he is he is not the least bit surprised by Pakistan's poor run in the ongoing World T20 Championship.
A 27-member Pakistan cricket contingent left for India to take part in the Twenty20 World Cup, finally ending days of uncertainty over their participation in the mega event. The team will be reaching Kolkata via Abu Dhabi. The Pakistan squad including 15 players, 12 officials and support staff reached the Allama Iqbal international airport amidst tight security and boarded a flight hours after the Pakistan government finally gave the PCB the green signal to fly to India to take part in the ICC event. Due to a long stay in Abu Dhabi the squad will reach Kolkata later this evening. Head coach Waqar Younis, before departing for India, left a message on his Twitter account calling for unity in the team. "Come on together we can do it," he tweeted a message aimed at motivating the players. He told the media that though the departure of the team for India had been hit by uncertainty and security issues, the focus of the players now would only be on cricket and doing well in the world event.
The United States has joined India in condemning the terror strike in Jammu, with the two countries vowing to consolidate their efforts to eliminate terrorist safe havens and calling on Pakistan to bring to justice the perpetrators of the 2008 Mumbai attack.
England captain Alastair Cook hailed his team's performance in drawing the first Test with Pakistan on Saturday after the tourists recovered from conceding more than 500 first innings runs to be within 25 of an improbable victory.
Opener Tom Latham struck his second consecutive hundred to keep New Zealand on course for a big first-innings total on the opening day of the second Test against Pakistan on Monday. Opting to bat first after winning the toss at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium, the visitors, trailing 1-0 in the three-Test series, reached 243 for three wickets at the close.
Images from the Asia Cup T20 cricket match between India and Pakistan on Saturday.
Zimbabwe are still in with a chance of an upset victory, but Pakistan appeared in control at close on the fourth day of the second Test in Harare on Friday. Pakistan, needing 264 for victory, finished on 158 for five.
The International Cricket Council (ICC) crackdowns on chucking again. West Indies mystery spinner Sunil Narine has been reported for suspect bowling action during a Champions League T20 match between KKR and Dolphins, in Hyderabad.
India on Wednesday raised its concerns over millions of rupees allocated by Pakistan's Punjab province government to Jamat-ud-Dawa-led by Mumbai terror attacks mastermind Hafeez Saeed, saying New Delhi would "carefully" analyse the matter before taking it up with Islamabad.
Mohammad Naved Yakub Naved, the Lashkar-e-Tayiba terrorist who was captured alive after the attack on the BSF convoy in Udhampur, has been giving his interrogators vital information on how the terror industry thrives in parts of Pakistan.
PCB chairman Shaharyar Khan has said that the option of flying out off-spinner Saeed Ajmal to Australia for the cricket World Cup was available if Pakistan reached the semi-finals.
Rajneesh Gupta presents all the fascinating career numbers of players in the World Cup.
The World Twenty20 build-up has been far from ideal for Pakistan but captain Shahid Afridi said his team is in a positive frame of mind even though it needs to be more disciplined in executing strategy. Pakistan could win only two matches during last month's Asia Cup, a debacle that came close on the heels of a limited-overs away series loss to New Zealand. Afridi said his side has been guilty of deviating from plans and this shortcoming will have to be overcome when it takes on Bangladesh (March 16) and India (March 19) in the opening two matches here. "We are missing that (execution of plans). But I don't think we should live in the past. If we play to the team plan, we would do well," Afridi said in a press conference on Sunday. "The first game is always very important. You take rhythm from the first match. We will try to take the rhythm from the first match. The pitch and conditions suit us. Both the matches will be very important," he added.
"We need to have further discussion and conversation so that we can have better understanding and can work closely on it. We are ready to do that," said a Chinese official.
India's Mahendra Singh Dhoni was named captain of ICC's ODI Team of the Year, but none of the Indian players found berth in governing body's Test Team of the Year, led by Sri Lanka's Angelo Mathews.
World champions India have consolidated their top rank on the ICC ODI Team Rankings after sweeping the series against Sri Lanka, which concluded in Ranchi on Sunday.
Shikhar Dhawan scoring 12 runs from Pakistan's ace spinner Saeed Ajmal's first over was the turning point in India run-chase in the WT20 match in Mirpur on Friday. The bowler was immediately taken off and by the time he returned for another spell India were well on the way to victory.
It is time again to return to the shortest format of cricket as leading players, including India skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni, get ready to represent their respective franchises in the sixth edition of the Champions League T20.
China on Thursday said its stand on blocking India against UN action on Pakistan was based on "facts" and in the spirit of "objectiveness and fairness".
Sri Lanka needed a little over 26 overs to chase down a 153-run victory target for a series-levelling seven-wicket victory in the second Test against Pakistan on Monday.
In a three part series, Rajneesh Gupta highlights all the important numbers from Cricket World Cup held between 1975 to 2015.
Tainted fast bowler Mohammad Amir was named in Pakistan's squad for the upcoming Asia Cup and the Twenty20 World Cup even as seasoned opener Ahmed Shehzad and veteran bowler Umar Gul were shown the door.
Work on the 340-acre campus expected to be completed by April this year
Angelo Mathews made amends for missing a century in the first innings with a gritty unbeaten 116 in the second as Sri Lanka racked up a solid lead in the opening Test against Pakistan in Abu Dhabi on Friday.
Out-of-favour Pakistan cricketers Kamran Akmal and Shoaib Malik minced no words in making it clear that they are not happy with the treatment meted out to them.
Pakistan-based Lashkar-eTayiba and its front group Jamaat-ud-Dawa, enjoying backing of the military, have not only grown far stronger since the Mumbai terror attack in 2008, but are also trying to acquire weapons of mass destruction, in addition to developing air and sea power, a new book says
Players with the maximum work load in 2015.
Ahmed Shehzad hit a career-best 176 while Younis Khan and Misbah-ul-Haq struck unbeaten centuries before Pakistan declared their first innings on 566 for 3 wickets in the first Test against New Zealand in Abu Dhabi on Monday.
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