India's captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni described the Motera featherbed as a bowler-hostile track even as his Sri Lanka counterpart Kumar Sangakkara had no issues with the strip, calling it a 'true' wicket.
Skipper Gautam Gambhir led from the front with two half-centuries in the initial phase and when he failed to contribute, Robin Uthappa and Manish Pandey have stepped up to do the bulk of scoring.
A memorable T20 debut performance in his bag, young India seamer Barinder Sran says receiving tips on the art of swing bowling from veteran Ashish Nehra and Bhuvneshwar Kumar helped him. Sran (4/10) returned the best figures by an Indian debutant in T20 Internationals to help the visitors restrict Zimbabwe to a paltry 99 for nine and then register a 10-wicket victory in the second match in Harare on Monday.
Virat Kohli and Mahendra Singh Dhoni dropped down the ladder to No 4 and 10 respectively, while Shikhar Dhawan retained the seventh rung in the latest Reliance ICC ODI batsmen's rankings, released on Monday.
Virat Kohli is the quintessential 'teacher's delight' but it is injury-prone Mohammed Shami, in his current fit avatar, that India's strength and conditioning coach Shankar Basu considers his biggest achievement since joining the team.
Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni broke the world record for most number of stumpings in international cricket after he effected his 134th dismissal on Day 2 of the third cricket Test against Australia at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Saturday.
The legendary Indian cricketer was the Man of the ODI series, but the Most Valuable Player title went to an unlikely Aussie, point out Srinivas Bhogle and Purnendu Maji.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar has emerged as one of the five players nominated for the LG People's Choice Award ahead of the ICC annual awards.
Indian team director Ravi Shastri also made it clear that Shami will figure in the playing XI during the two warm-up games against West Indies (in Kolkata, on Thursday) and South Africa in Mumbai on March 12 in order to assess his fitness.
Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni became the first Indian wicketkeeper and the fourth overall to effect 300 dismissals in One Day Internationals when he caught Ross Taylor, off the bowling of Mohammed Shami, in the opening ODI against New Zealand in Napier on Sunday.
Nursing a toe injury, India opener Rohit Sharma on Monday skipped the team's training session and is likely to miss Tuesday's Asia Cup T20 match against Sri Lanka in Mipur. His opening partner Shikhar Dhawan did train, so did skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who had a knock during the two-and-a-half-hour net session at the BCB Academy in Sher-e-Bangla Stadium. Rohit, who took a blow on the left toe off a yorker by Mohammed Amir, did not accompany the team for practice as he stayed back in his hotel room. While he is lucky to have escaped fracture, it is highly unlikely that he will play against Sri Lanka, which might increase the soreness of his left toe. With the World T20 starting in a week's time, the team management will not risk Rohit, who is one of the key players in the top order. Dhawan hit the nets but did not have the usual sprightly strides that one normally associates with the Delhi left-hander. He took a few catches, did a bit of shadow batting and was the last one to come out to bat in fading light.
'We are expecting him (Dhoni) to be 100 percent in the next few days.' 'It's a big moment for me personally'
The Indian squad led by Mahendra Singh Dhoni departed for New Zealand from Mumbai on Sunday for a five-match ODI series followed by a best-of-two Test rubber against the hosts.
Having regained his form with two unbeaten knocks in the league stage of the cricket World Cup, India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni has gained two spots to be placed eight in the latest ICC batting rankings.
Polling will be held in all 13 seats in Punjab and an equal number of seats in Uttar Pradesh, nine in West Bengal, eight seats each in Bihar and Madhya Pradesh, four in Himachal Pradesh, three in Jharkhand and the lone seat Chandigarh.
India's One-day captain has received solid backing from former players to continue leading the team.
The local police in Ranchi has requested the family of Mahendra Singh Dhoni to inform them about India captain's early morning bike rides purely for security reason.
'The BJP politics of appropriating icons from its ideological adversaries could only be a desperate attempt to extend the Jat-Muslim divide in Uttar Pradesh. Why this desperation when it can comfortably get votes on the plank of economic development?'
Sri Lanka captain Mahela Jayawardene won the toss and elected to bat in the fifth one-day international against India in Colombo on Sunday. Spinner Pragyan Ojha and pacer Praveen Kumar made way for debutant Ravindra Jadeja and Laxmipathy Balaji.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni's short yet stirring speech had a simple message for his teammates ahead of a busy season beginning with the West Indies tour: "It is important to have fun while you playing and if you back each other, success will follow you eventually". Dhoni's pep talk came after the Indian cricketers enjoyed a 45-minute 'drum bonding' session alongside a bunch of musicians in Bengaluru on Sunday. India's limited overs captain will not be part of the 17 Tests, including 13 at home, this season but his words were music to the ears for the youngsters in the room.
Kohli, who was named man-of-the-match for the 2nd Test that India won against Sri Lanka in Nagpur on Monday, will play the third and final Test in New Delhi.
The variety in Sunrisers Hyderabad's bowling attack will pose a few tricky questions for Mumbai Indians
Captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni felt India lost the first ODI against Australia in the five overs of Powerplay when three wickets fell while scoring just 32 runs.
Suresh Kumar scored a match-winning 87 to help India Blue beat India Red by one-wicket in a thriller at the NKP Salve Challenger Trophy cricket tournament in Nagpur.
Virat Kohli-led Royal Challengers Bangalore have won only three games out of 10 in IPL-12 so far.
Paying a tribute to the retiring Ashish Nehra, the Delhi District Cricket Association (DDCA) on Wednesday named one of the playing ends at the Feroz Shah Kotla stadium in New Delhi after the veteran seamer.
Pacer Ishant Sharma retained his place despite his struggle for form as India named an unchanged squad, which played in the first three ODIs, for the remaining four games in the seven-match series against Australia.
Indian batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar was named the best Asian one-day batsman at the inaugural Asian cricket Council (ACC) awards ceremony in Karachi last night.
Was any cricketer missing at the skipper's wedding reception in Mumbai?
Will the struggling Manish Pandey make way for Dinesh Karthik?
As India go in to the four-match Test series against Australia that commences in Adelaide on Tuesday, here is a factbox.
Senior Tamil Nadu wicketkeeper-batsman Dinesh Karthik on Thursday earned a recall to the Indian team for the upcoming ICC Champions Trophy after Manish Pandey was ruled out due to a side strain.
India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni won the toss and elected to bat against New Zealand in the first One-Day International in Napier on Tuesday. For India, pacer Ishant Sharma was rested after injuring his shoulder during the second Twenty20 International against New Zealand. He was replaced by Praveen Kumar, while Munaf Patel took the place of Irfan Pathan. Sachin Tendulkar, who missed out on the last two one-dayers against Sri Lanka, also returns to the Indian team.
This year's IPL was action-packed and Redifff.com reloads some of the memorable moments, in pictures, from this year's competition.
The needle clash, expected to be watched by a capacity crowd at the Wankhede Stadium, looks set to raise the curtains on the decade-old T20 League in grand style after a formal opening ceremony.
If Rishabh Pant excels against Australia, then Dinesh Karthik will struggle to make the cut for the World Cup.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni will lead the Indian team for the limited overs tour of Zimbabwe starting June 11, while top stars like Virat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane have been rested.
The 1983 World Cup winning captain said that the batting slots should be decided according to the match situation.
It all starts in Guwahati on Sunday as the biggest city in Assam is slowly getting back to normalcy after protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).
Having struggled in the past one year after suspensions of Steve Smith and David Warner, Australia finally seemed to have picked their pieces and playing exactly like a five-time champions ought to.
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