Mbappe and Benzema inspire France to 2-0 win against Finland
Perennial under-achievers Delhi Daredevils and Kings XI Punjab will look to recover from opening losses and put their campaign back on track.
If MI have their problems to sort out, having lost at the death in all three games so far, RCB too have their own shortcomings to address with only one win in three games under their belt.
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.
Languishing at the bottom of ICC ODI team ranking, Pakistan have set sight on direct qualification for the ICC Cricket World Cup when they take on the in-form reigning world champions and number-one ranked Australia in a five-ODI series starting in Brisbane on Friday.
Keen to take the field after missing the first few Indian Premier League matches this season due to a knee injury, Royal Challengers Bangalore pacer Mitchell Starc expressed his desire to play against Chennai Super Kings, in Bangalore, on Wednesday.
'We would've loved to win the game, but the boys bowled really well and they also batted really well. It's probably on us batters to take a bit of the weight from them'
Here are the statistical highlights from the second day's play of the fourth cricket Test between India and England at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.
According to Sourav Ganguly, not facing Australian bowlers regularly has helped Dhawan and Team India.
Opener Matt Renshaw, Peter Handscomb and Nic Maddinson will all play their first Tests at Adelaide Oval after selectors wielded the axe following the Hobart humiliation, which gave South Africa an unassailable 2-0 lead in the series.
English skipper Eoin Morgan expressed disappointment in the manner his side surrendered in the tri-series final to Australia by 112 runs but said that they will come back stronger in the World Cup beginning on February 14.
After losing to New Zealand and taking just a point from their washed out match against Bangladesh, Australia probably need to beat Sri Lanka to ensure they finish in the top two in the pool and avoid India or South Africa in the last eight.
A hostile crowd buoyed by New Zealand's perfect start to the World Cup is set to turn Eden Park into a bear pit for visiting Australia on Saturday, but all-rounder Shane Watson is "excited" by the prospect of a rancorous reception.
Former Australia batsman Dean Jones feels the standard of bowling in international cricket has touched an "all-time low", voicing his concern at a time when 300-plus totals have become the norm in One-Day Internationals.
There was general consensus in Australia on Wednesday that retaining the Ashes this year got a little bit harder after the appointment of wily compatriot Trevor Bayliss as England's new head coach.
Royal Challengers Bangalore would look to seal a play-off berth by beating laggards Delhi Daredevils.
India lead South Africa by five points and need to win two matches in order to stop falling behind the Proteas.
Having represented Pakistan in five cricket World Cup campaigns, legendary pacer Wasim Akram feels that it will be a challenge for sub-continent bowlers to perform in this edition of the 50-over showpiece event in Australian and New Zealand.
Cristiano Ronaldo scored the 750th goal of his remarkable career in a 3-0 win over Dynamo Kyiv on Wednesday
Riding on Joe Root's ton and Moeen Ali's half century (99 batting), England made most of the favourable conditions to finish Day 1 on 311/4. Here are the statistical highlights from Day 1 of the 1st Test in Rajkot on Wednesday.
As the global cricket community prays for Australia cricketer Phillip Hughes' recovery from a severe head injury, fast bowlers rushed to the defence of Sean Abbott, whose short-pitched ball struck the batsman and left him fighting for his life.
Australian captain George Bailey is not surprised that India did not qualify for the tri-series final and said that concentrating on Test cricket before heading into the ODI event might have been the reason for their below-par showing.
Mitchell Starc was the Player of the Tournament, but he ranks only 5th on Rediff.com's Most Valuable Player ratings list, revealing how this World Cup was so much in the batsmen's favour.
An inconsistent Delhi Daredevils will look to break the home jinx when they take on Mumbai Indians in their sixth match of the IPL cricket tournament at Feroz Shah Kotla in New Delhi on Thursday.
After putting up a match-winning all-round show in the tri-series final, Australia all-rounder Glenn Maxwell said he was relieved with his show with the bat. Maxwell scored 95 in Australia's total of 278 and then took four wickets with his off-breaks.
tung by the defeat in the series opener despite putting up a big score, India will have to plug their bowling loopholes when they take on Australia in the second One-Day International on Friday, fully aware that any slip-up will make their task of bouncing back difficult.
Off-spinner R Ashwin, who has been phenomenal in home conditions, has made it to the Test team as the 12th man, while pacer Mohammed Shami has been included in the ODI team.
Back in the top half of the league table after a convincing win over Sunrisers Hyderabad, Delhi Daredevils will look to build on the winning momentum when they take on defending champions Mumbai Indians in their Indian Premier League match in Visakhapatnam on Sunday.
Dinesh Chandimal and Dimuth Karunaratne obstinately defied New Zealand's bowlers for much of the second day of the first Test at University Oval in Dunedin on Friday though the hosts still have the upper hand.
Australia wrested control of the third Test back from England for the second day in a row on Saturday, reducing the tourists to 180 for four at the close of play and taking another major step towards reclaiming the Ashes.
India's T20 World Cup challenge has ended. But it is likely that Virat Kohli (MVPI of 338) will go on to become the tournament's most valuable player because he enjoys a lead of 109 runs over second-placed Joe Root (229).
India's Manika Batra and Mouma Das lost 3-0 to Tianwei Feng and Mengyu Yu of Singapore in the women's sinlges final.
In a three part series, Rajneesh Gupta highlights all the important numbers from Cricket World Cup held between 1975 to 2015.
IPL 8 is past the half-way mark, and Andre Russell of Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) is emerging.
Rajneesh Gupta presents all the fascinating career numbers of players in the World Cup.
The 65th Emmys will be held on September 22 in Los Angeles.
Srinivas Bhogle and Purnendu Maji figure out who are the most valuable players after the league phase of the World Cup intheir latest update.
As we write this we still await the crucial India-Australia knock-out in Mohali. But India's individual performances in the T20 World Cup so far haven't been truly impressive. A look at the most valuable player index (MVPI) table reveals that there's no Indian player in the top 20. MVPI merges a player's batting + bowling + fielding performance into a single 'run equivalent'. The formula to compute the MVP is devised to reward batsmen who score runs at a high strike rate, bowlers who take wickets at low economy rate and fielders who field the best (take a lot of catches and participate in run-outs). Since this is a relatively low scoring tournament we have assumed a team's par score to be 150, and each wicket to be worth 15 'runs'. It isn't a surprise that players from New Zealand dominate the rankings so far, although Joe Root tops the table after his 83 in 44 balls against South Africa.
A B de Villiers still heads Rediff.com's Most Valuable Players ratings for the World Cup.
