Having made it to the final of the World Cup, New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum says his team is confident of winning the Cup.
Statistical highlights of the World Twenty20 Super 10 Group 2 match between India and New Zealand in Nagpur on Tuesday.
It was India's players all the way, with batting sensation Virat Kohli emerging the most valuable, ahead of senior spinner Amit Mishra. Srinivas Bhogle and Purnendu Maji graphically depict the top players from the recently concluded India-New Zealand ODI series.
Factbox on the cricket World Cup semi-final between New Zealand and South Africa at Eden Park, Auckland.
Opener Jason Roy hit a quickfire half-century while leg-spinner Adil Rashid claimed three wickets to lift England to a convincing six-wicket victory against England in the ICC World T20 warm-up match at the Wankhede stadium, in Mumbai, on Saturday.
Amit Mishra produced a magical spell to send New Zealand crashing for a lowly 79 as India won by a massive margin of 190 runs to clinch the five-match series 3-2, in the fifth and final One-Day International in Visakhapatnam, on Saturday.
At the face of it, there is apparently no danger to Dhoni's captaincy since the team is still winning matches. But if one digs deeper, Kohli has slowly and surely been the man everyone is looking forward to as the leader, across all formats for India.
Britain's AstraZeneca on Monday rejected a sweetened and "final" offer from Pfizer , casting serious doubt on the U.S. drugmaker's plan for a merger to create the world's biggest pharmaceuticals group.
Shikhar Dhawan and Cheteshwar Pujara guided India to 87 for one to leave the first Test against New Zealand at Eden Park in Auckland delicately poised at the end of a tumultuous third day.
The International Cricket Council released the provisional squads of the 12 teams for next year's World Cup in Australia and New Zealand on Friday. However, co-hosts Australia and minnows Ireland decided against releasing the provisional list although they submitted 30 names to the parent body within the stipulated deadline.
Penpix of the New Zealand squad that will play the cricket World Cup final against Australia at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Sunday.
New Zealand captain Kane Williamson believes India, with several match winners in their squad and the advantage of playing in home conditions, are definitely one the favourites at the World T20.
Reigning champion India will be bidding to gain further momentum and become only the third side in World Cup history to successfully defend its title after West Indies in 1975 and 1979 and Australia, who won the coveted prize three times in succession between 1999 and 2007.
The 8th Champions Trophy begins in England this week. Rajneesh Gupta captures the tournament in all its statistical glory like only he can.
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.
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).
- 'Always strong at the psychological game, the Aussies put the pressure on the opponents, knew how to handle the pressure themselves and exploited virtually every situation to their advantage' - 'They are firmly and categorically told never to allow success to go to their heads. You don't find Australian cricketers getting even a little complacent'
India's batting sensation Virat Kohli, named player of the tournament, is also the most valuable player of World T20 2016. With a fifty and two wickets, England's Joe Root is just behind him.
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.
'That was the key to a game where, on paper, there is nothing to separate the two sides: Intensity. From the first ball of the innings to the run out of Southee, the Australian bowlers and fielders buzzed around like predatory yellow-jacketed wasps.' 'Adding teeth to the bowling and relentless fielding is the captaincy of Michael Clarke, leading in his last one day international. His body may require an entire college of medical specialists to maintain, but his mind is scalpel-sharp, cutting through the complexities of the game to hit on simple solutions.'
In the ICC Player Rankings for Test bowlers, Australia's Ryan Harris has moved up two places to second following his six wickets against India in the fourth Test at MCG.
Sangakkara, Dhoni, McCullum, de Villiers... Cricket has never had so many amazing wicketkeeper-batsmen in the same era...
Virat Kohli was unquestionably the top player, but the most valuable player index (MVPI) suggests that Shakib Al Hasan had an equally good World T20 even though his team Bangladesh fared poorly.
A look at the squads for the seventh season of the Indian Premier League at the conclusion of the two-day auction in Bangalore.
As the top 10 teams prepare to battle for the World T20 crown, Rajneesh Gupta breaks down each squad's T20 performance and their showing in previous editions of the event.
So 52 games have already been played in the Indian Premier League this season. Here are the Most Valuable players and some random observations by Purnendu Maji and Srinivas Bhogle.
The cricketing world is all set for another feast with the Indian Premier League.