West Indies off-spinner Sunil Narine got complete backing of his Kolkata Knight Riders captain Gautam Gambhir who termed him as an asset and said there can be no back-up for the mystery bowler.
Publicly labelled 'soft' by former Test bowler Shane Warne only a few months ago, paceman Mitchell Starc has come of age.
Virat Kohli and Bhuvneshwar Kumar are India's highest-ranked batsman and bowler in third and 13th positions respectively.
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.
Ponting said that he has never been more impressed by a young cricketer than Hughes.
Rohit's 115 off 126 balls was his first century on South African soil as came after failures in the earlier matches in the series - his total score was 40 before the 5th ODI on Tuesday.
Perhaps for the first time, India's pace strength is not centred on any one individual, or set of individuals.
India aim to stay afloat against daunting South Africa in the second Test
Dale Steyn claimed six for 100 to bowl out India for 334 in their first innings. In reply, South Africa got off to a positive start, scoring 82 for no loss, at stumps on the rain-hit second day in Durban, on Friday.
Rohit Sharma feels that outgoing captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni's decision to make him open the batting in the 50-overs format was a 'career-changing move'.
Former captain Graeme Smith feels South Africa's 'powerful' bowling attack will put the Indian batting line-up under serious pressure in the upcoming Test series, starting January 5 in Cape Town.
A venomous spell of fast bowling from Stuart Broad led England to an emphatic seven- wicket win over South Africa in the third on Saturday to clinch the series. Broad's brilliant return of 6-17 on a lively wicket skittled the Proteas for 83 in their second innings on the third day. England reached their modest victory-target of 74 with relative ease as captain Alastair Cook (43) top-scored in guiding them to 77 for three from 22,4 overs under gloomy skies. The tourists now have an unassailable 2-0 lead in the four-match series, with the final game to be played in Pretoria. South Africa bowled out England for 323 in the morning session for a slender first-innings deficit of 10 runs, but were no match for the bounce and movement of a rampant Broad as they crumbled to their second lowest score since returning to international cricket in 1991.
South Africa coach Russell Domingo says the Proteas will rely on their pace battery to rattle India's formidable batting in the upcoming series, which kicks-off with a Twenty20 warm-up match against an India 'A' team in Delhi on Tuesday.
Images from the India v SA, second Test, day 1, at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium, in Bengaluru.
India's bowlers, led by Ravichandran Ashwin, displayed outstanding perseverance to end South Africa's dogged resistance and register a comprehensive 337-run victory in the final Test at the Feroz Shah Kotla, in Delhi, on Monday.
A spectacular collapse has raised the prospect of a nervous finale for a brittle West Indies after they finished on 275 for nine on day four of the second Test against South Africa on Monday.
Srinivas Bhogle and Purnendu Maji figure out who are the most valuable players after the league phase of the World Cup intheir latest update.
The Indian opener tops the Champions Trophy MVP table. But Hasan Ali, Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma aren't too far behind, note Srinivas Bhogle and Purnendu Maji.
India will look to crush a South African revival before it becomes a threat to their pursuit of a maiden ODI series triumph here when the two sides clash in the fifth one-dayer, on Tuesday.
Shakya Mitra ponders why top batsmen like Michael Clarke bowing out early.
Having made it to the final of the World Cup, New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum says his team is confident of winning the Cup.
Andre Russell returned with a four-wicket haul to guide Kolkata Knight Riders to a seven-run win over Kings XI Punjab and go atop the points table in their return to home in the Indian Premier League.
South Africa lost the wicket of opener Alviro Petersen for a duck as they chased 369 runs for victory in the second Test against Sri Lanka on Sunday.
Barring Sri Lanka's Kumar Sangakkara, all players have declared their allegiances to IPL franchises over their respective countries' domestic sides ahead of the upcoming Champions League Twenty20.
'I try to play my best and put India in a good position.'
The Proteas are working overtime to devise a strategy to get the better of the right-hander and they believe the best way to dismiss Rohit is to get him early before he gets his eye in.
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.
Srinivas Bhogle and Purnendu Maji list the 50 Most Valuable Players in the 2017 Champions Trophy.
Earlier, on the back of Virat Kohli's 160 (not out), India reached a total of 303 for 6 in their 50 overs.
A buoyant India will look to cash in on South Africa's injury woes, compounded by the loss of captain Faf du Plessis, when the two sides meet in the second One-Day International in Centurion on Sunday.
Virat Kohli will be facing the toughest battle of his nascent ODI captaincy career when defending champions India take on South Africa in a do-or-die match of the ICC Champions Trophy, in London, on Sunday.
Virat Kohli, on Tuesday, said performance of the pacers has been a big boost for the team and hinted at employing an all-seam attack against South Africa on a typical green Wanderers track in the third cricket Test in Johannesburg.
Kagiso Rabada said South Africa are gunning for a whitewash of India, having trampled the visitors in the first two matches.
Youngster Hardik Pandya blasted an unbeaten half-century to help Mumbai Indians edge past Kolkata Knight Riders and boost their hopes of making it to the play-offs in the Indian Premier League in Mumbai, on Thursday.
The International Cricket Council has approved change in rules in the LBW decisions of the umpires concerning the controversial Decision Review System, which is expected to benefit the bowlers, while deferring plans for a radical shake-up of international cricket, including on the proposed creation of two divisions in Test and a new one-day league.
Shane Watson smashed an unbeaten century and then bagged two wickets as Rajasthan Royals outplayed defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders by nine runs to seal a play-offs berth in the IPL tournament in Mumbai on Saturday.
'This was not the cleanest game of cricket you've ever seen -- there were too many flubs and fumbles for that. But it was certainly the semi-final this mostly blah tournament has needed -- two tough, well-rounded teams, toe to toe, slugging it out, bleeding and drawing blood until there was only one left standing.'
Factbox on the cricket World Cup semi-final between New Zealand and South Africa at Eden Park, Auckland.
Kolkata Knight Riders are back in familiar home conditions but can ill-afford to take Kings XI Punjab lightly, who are showing signs of improvement under a newly-appointed skipper, when the two teams clash in Kolkata, on Wednesday.
Mumbai Indians need to rethink their strategy; Narine boost for Kolkata Knight Riders.
