Former Test captain Shahid Afridi said it would be a dream come true to have a Pakistan vs India final on Sunday at the MCG.
It was neither the 31-year-old all-rounder's fastest knock nor his most fluent as batting partners fell away, and he had to grind his way through some testing fast bowling.
The Netherlands and Sweden marched into the quarter-finals of the FIFA Women's World Cup.
The 33-year-old was wearing pads but not a helmet as he was waiting for his turn to bat.
Australian allrounder Shane Watson is unlikely to play the second Test against India next week as he returned home to continue rehab on his hamstring injury.
'We are expecting him (Dhoni) to be 100 percent in the next few days.' 'It's a big moment for me personally'
"Everybody has different tags and rankings that go up and down throughout the year, and I suppose they end up with different names. But you come into a tournament on any day, anything can happen, especially looking across all these teams with match winners throughout."
'We're absolutely confident the Australian Open will go ahead'
The England team under Heather Knight finished winless, their points coming from two washed out T20 matches in Adelaide and a drawn test in Canberra.
For the much-awaited 10th 'Pink Test', the Australian and English cricket teams on Tuesday donned pink caps at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) alongside veteran cricketer and McGrath Foundation founder, Glenn McGrath.
Indian wicketkeeper Wriddhiman Saha was, on Tuesday, ruled out of the third and final Test against South Africa due to a hamstring injury and will be replaced by Dinesh Karthik in the squad.
Reserve batsman Fakhar Zaman, who has been out with a knee injury, will also travel to Brisbane with Afridi.
Factbox on former Australian spinner Shane Warne, who died on Friday at the age of 52.
Plucked from obscurity when called up by selectors on Christmas Eve, the 32-year-old Victoria paceman finished with outrageous innings figures of 6-7 in four overs, sending his home crowd at the Melbourne Cricket Ground into delirium.
Hair, who no-balled Muralitharan for throwing in the 1995-96 Melbourne Test, will officiate in Lanka's match against England in Sydney.
The 50-year-old former Australia batsman opined that India have a potent bowling attack and if their batsmen cope with the bounce well, then the tourists could stage a comeback in the series.
Dashing opener Virender Sehwag became the fifth Indian batsman to complete 8000 runs in Test cricket when he reached an individual score of 20 against Australia in the first Test.
Indian vice-captain Rahul Dravid refused to believe that the heat would be on India alone in the crucial Melbourne Test.
Cricket Australia will be understanding of players who feel uncomfortable about playing in the wake of the death of Phillip Hughes when the rescheduled India Test series starts next week, chief executive James Sutherland said on Tuesday.
Following is a factbox on the first Test match between Australia and England, which starts on Thursday:
The captain couldn't be more happier with Ashwin's success.
India's opener Shikhar Dhawan and vice-captain Virat Kohli have recovered from their injuries sustained during the second Test against Australia and are fit to play the third match beginning in Melbourne on December 26.
Sent in to bat on a grassy MCG pitch on Sunday, England were skittled for 185
England resumed their first innings on 491 for nine but Cook was unable to add to his overnight total, with Pat Cummins dismissing tail-ender James Anderson for a duck with the first ball of the morning.
Factbox on the four-Test series between Australia and India, which begins on Thursday
Virat Kohli urged his batsmen to complement the superb effort of his bowling unit in the upcoming Boxing Day Test against Australia starting on Wednesday.
Pat Cummins said the Adelaide wicket had played a part in the humbling of India in the first test and the Australia paceman is hoping for another good track when the teams meet again in the second Test in Melbourne on December 26.
Left-arm spinner Ashton Agar will join Australia's squad for the fourth and final Test against India in Sydney, captain Steven Smith said on Tuesday.
The legendary Sunil Gavaskar said the Test series triumph in Australia last year ranks among the team's 'greatest wins' of all time and can be considered a golden chapter in the country's cricket history.
'(And) we've got a fourth guy who's a regular opener for India who's not fit (Vijay). We've got all four openers firing now. Shikhar was supposed to go (home) to Melbourne, now he's got a 190 in Galle. So, anything can happen in life'
Karnataka pacer R Vinay Kumar was named as his replacement for the four-match Test series beginning in Melbourne on December 26.
England and Pakistan to use T20 series to gauge World Cup readiness
'We're excited about Rohit coming back. Spoke to him yesterday, he's waiting to join the team.'
Australia named an unchanged 12-man squad for the fourth Test in Melbourne following the team's dominant 267-run win over England in Perth on Sunday.
Former Sri Lanka captain Duleep Mendis once remarked that 'Murali' could turn the ball even on concrete and it was no exaggeration.
The Sports Authority of India on Friday formed a three-member inquiry committee to look into gymnast Aruna Budda Reddy's allegations of being video-graphed without consent during a physical fitness test conducted in March.
Following is a fact box on the final Test of the four-match series between Australia and India
Top order batsman Usman Khawaja has suffered a setback in his bid to return to the Australia team for the second Test against West Indies after being ruled out of a domestic Twenty20 match by his Sydney Thunder side on Monday.
Australia fast bowler Mitchell Johnson has been ruled out of next week's fourth Test against India because of the injury he sustained to his right hamstring during the third game in Melbourne.
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