Round up of the Ranji Trophy matches being played throughout the country.
Riding on a solid batting performance, the formidable Chennai Super Kings opened their Champions League Twenty20 campaign in style, defeating South Africa's Titans by four wickets in a high-scoring encounter in Ranchi on Sunday.
Indian batting legend Sunil Gavaskar lavished parise on Suresh Raina's match-winning knock in the second ODI against England and rated the left-hander's hundred as one of the best ODI innings overseas.
After making impressive debuts in their respective openers, Rising Pune Supergiants and GujaratLions will test each others' strengths when the two new entrants clash in the Indian Premier League (IPL), in Rajkot on Thursday. The two teams feature a lot of faces from the suspended Chennai Super Kings and at least six players, who played in the same side till last year, will now be in opposite camps. Close friends and CSK teammates Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Suresh Raina will now be devising strategies as rival captains. Both have admitted that playing in a jersey other than 'yellow' has been very "emotional" but have promised to give their all for their new teams. The Dhoni-led Pune Supergiants were very convincing and dominant when they handed defending champions Mumbai Indians a nine-wicket drubbing. They did not even require their middle order, packed with Dhoni himself and players such as Steven Smith, to come out with the top-order delivering it for them comfortably.
The India cricket team recorded a comprehensive 37-run win over Australia in the first T20 at the Adelaide Oval on Tuesday, and take a 1-0 lead in the three match T20 series. Here are the statistical highlights of the match...
After two consecutive losses, the Indian team finally tasted success in Fed Cup as it outplayed Uzbekistan 3-0 in Pool A with Ankita Raina winning both her singles and doubles matches, in Hua Hin, Thailand, on Friday.
The Indian cricket fraternity praised the team for pulling off the win.
On a day when Brendon McCullum broke the record for the fastest Test hundred, Suresh Raina said he couldn't be happier to have the Kiwi swashbuckler in his IPL team Gujarat Lions even though he wants an Indian to breach the milestone.
The star-studded TPL auction saw the presence of the tennis icons Leander Paes, Mahesh Bhupathi and Sania Mirza, who gathered together after many years to promote the sport, along with Bollywood celebs Rakul Preet Singh and Sonali Bendre.
Captain Suresh Raina slammed a masterful 146 as India A set New Zealand A 355 runs to win the four-day match. The Kiwis were 41 for 1 in 18 overs at the end of the penultimate day of the match.
A rejuvenated India clinched the One-Day International series against England as the hosts rode on the batting heroics of Rohit Sharma (83) and Suresh Raina (89 not out) to fashion a comfortable five-wicket victory in the fourth ODI and take an unassailable 3-1 lead in the five-match series.
Suresh Raina's unbeaten half-century guided Chennai Super Kings to a thumping nine-wicket victory over Kolkata Knight Riders and took them to second place in the IPL league table.
India captain Rahul Dravid won the toss and elected to bat against Sri Lanka in the opening game of the IndianOil Cup tri-series tournament
The three-day tour match between India A and England will be more than a practice match for players from both the teams. For England, who have won just one Test match in India since 1985, it is a chance to get acclimatised to the conditions before the all-important four-match Test series starting later this month.
Coach Duncan Fletcher devices innovative methods to help batsmen counter short-pitched deliveries
The IPL pricing so far has been extremely irrational, and one expects franchise owners to correct this in subsequent years.
Indian limited-overs captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni was on Monday retained in Group A of the men's player contracts for 2015-16 by the BCCI.
Gujarat Lions owner Keshav Bansal expressed happiness that the new franchise managed to get 'experienced and talented' players for the upcoming ninth edition of the Indian Premier League and is confident that captain Suresh Raina can make a strong comeback in the IPL after a dismal showing in the just-concluded World T20.
High on confidence after decimating a high-profile Royal Challengers Bangalore, an upbeat Gujarat Lions will be aiming to lift their game a notch higher when they face title contenders Mumbai Indians in an Indian Premier League encounter, in Rajkot on Saturday.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India's Committee of Administrators (COA) on Tuesday doubled the annual retainership amount to Rs 2 crore for seven Grade A cricketers, including captain Virat Kohli and former skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni.
India left-hander Suresh Raina insisted that India are still a 'better side' than Bangladesh while vowing to make a strong comeback in the three-match One-Day International series after the visitors suffered a shock defeat in the first match in Mirpur, Dhaka.
Stand-in captain Suresh Raina is happy that the new-look Indian team that got very little time to prepare for the West Indies series have produced results.
Middle-order batsman Suresh Raina made a comeback to the team fold after the newly appointed senior selection committee announced their India squad for the five-match ODI series against New Zealand, in New Delhi, on Thursday.
Suresh Raina, who scored a 75-ball 100 in India's thumping victory over England in the second ODI, says he wanted to bring fresh energy in the team and is glad he could with his overall performance.
Suresh Raina is baffled by Australian team's decision to opt for simulation training rather than play warm-up games ahead of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy four-Test series.
India Red predictably completed the formalities polishing off the India Green lower order early on the fourth and final day to win the inaugural Day-Night Duleep Trophy encounter by a comprehensive 219-run margin in Noida.
With the Indian batting in disarray, Suresh Raina's recent good form gives the Selection Committee, meeting shortly to decide on the squad for the home series against Australia, food for thought.
His team might have registered a crushing 54-run win over Dolphins in Bangalore but Chennai Super Kings skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni indicated that it would need to improve its bowling to win the Champions League Twenty20.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni's retirement from Test cricket has left the Indian think-tank fretting over the ideal playing combination that will take on Australia in the fourth and final Test at the Sydney Cricket Ground starting next Tuesday.
Chennai Super Kings went on expected lines as they retained their top five players including captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Suresh Raina, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja and Dwayne Bravo for the seventh edition of the Indian Premier League.
The national selection panel, headed by Sandeep Patil, sent out a strong message by axing the experienced Suresh Raina and Ishant Sharma, with the 50-overs World Cup just a year away.
'To win a medal, the players will have to play a couple of tough rounds. The draws are fine, and balanced and give us the opportunity to go deep.'
Light rain and overcast conditions have delayed the start of the first Test between India and England at Lord's. A slight drizzle a couple of hours before the scheduled start of play on Thursday, followed by dark sky caused the delay.
India's stand-in captain Suresh Raina said the three-match ODI series against Bangladesh will be a good opportunity for trying out new players ahead of next year's 50-over World Cup.
In two games on this tour, the 22-year-old Suresh Raina has wrenched his side of tight situations with authoritative half centuries (61 off 43 balls in the first T20 and 66 from 39 in the first ODI at Napier).
Please fill in your choices and help the Indian selectors make up their mind!
With the series already in pocket, the Indian team management has decided to rest senior batsman Suresh Raina for the fifth and final ODI in Ranchi on Sunday.
Chennai Super Kings batsman Suresh Raina reckons that the early dismissal of South African swashbuckler A B de Villiers proved to be the decisive factor in CSK's 27-run victory over Royal Challengers Bangalore in their Indian Premier League match in Bangalore on Wednesday.
Pace spearhead Zaheer Khan, who missed the first two matches due to injury, on Thursday, returned to the Indian team for the next three games of the ODI series against New Zealand while the selectors decided to rest batsman Suresh Raina and pacer Sreesanth, ahead of the upcoming South Africa series.
Statistical highlights of IPL match between Kings XI Punjab and Chennai Super Kings at the Barabati stadium in Cuttack.
