Handed the responsibility of leading India's bowling attack, Ishant Sharma is living up to expectations. The Delhi pacer played a major role in the 2-1 victory in the Test series in Sri Lanka, the first for India in the island nation after a long wait of 22 years.
On Thursday morning, the world woke up to the news of the death of iconic New Zealand cricketer Martin Crowe. A teenage prodigy, who went on to carve an illustrious career with his superlative batting and smart captaincy, lost his three-year long battle against cancer at the age of 53. Unfortunately, Crowe is among a few famous cricketers who battled to beat cancer but didn't survive the fight.
India's pace spearhead Mohammed Shami feels a certain degree of comfort playing under Mahendra Singh Dhoni. India's captain, he says, is never "demanding" and his backing has made the transformation from domestic to international cricket pretty smooth.
Images from the World Cup first quarter-final between Sri Lanka and South Africa in Sydney, on Wednesday.
'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.'
A B de Villiers may have made some big mistakes in the semi-final: Choosing to bat first in spite of the rain threat, batting too low at No 5, not hogging the strike after David Miller departed, fielding badly, asking Dale Steyn to bowl the last over ... but he is still best placed to be adjudged the most valuable player of the 2015 World Cup.
The West Indian has blasted his way to the top of Rediff.com's Most Valuable Players ratings for the World Cup with the South African skipper close on his heels.
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