Kane Williamson, leading New Zealand in a Test for the first time at home, scored his 24th half century to guide the hosts to an eight-wicket victory in the first test against Pakistan in Christchurch on Sunday. Chasing a target of 105 for the win, Williamson was dismissed on 61 with the hosts just a run shy of victory. Jeet Raval (36 not out) hit a four to push New Zealand over the line on 108 for two shortly after lunch on the fourth day. New Zealand had bowled the visitors out in their second innings for 171 about an hour into the day's play at Hagley Oval.
Virat Kohli remained the highest-placed Indian batsman at fourth even as Shikhar Dhawan rose a rung to sixth in the latest ICC ODI rankings.
Skipper Brendon McCullum led from the front, smashing an unbeaten 83, as Otago Volts from New Zealand beat Pakistan's Faisalabad Wolves by eight wickets in a qualifying round match of the Champions League Twenty20 in Mohali on Tuesday.
Joe Root's unbeaten half-century helped stuttering England reach 182 for three at the close on the second day of the second Test on Friday after Pakistan's seam and spin attack ran through the tourists' top order.
Australia vice-captain David Warner found it "bizarre" that pundits and fans continue to criticise the team despite winning their last two Test matches after a run of five losses.
Sri Lanka off-spinner Tharindu Kaushal scythed through Pakistan's batting order to pick up his first five-wicket haul as the visitors were bundled out for 138 on the opening day of the second test on Thursday.
Pakistan's Yasir Shah claimed five wickets to put the breaks on England's scoring on Day 2 of the 1st Test at Lord's in London on Friday.
Pakistan's Mohammad Amir got a muted reception at Lord's on the second day of the first Test on Friday as he bowled for the first time in a test since being banned for spot-fixing.
Opening the bowling for Pakistan in a World Cup match with India is enough to get any paceman excited. For Sohail Khan, playing his first international since September 2011, that excitement briefly got the better of him on Sunday.
"He (Sarfaraz) has shown himself to be a fine captain and yes he was struggling a bit for form but when a senior player is under pressure you have to encourage and back him, not dump him like this".
Pakistan grabbed a World Cup quarter-final berth on Sunday following their seven-wicket victory against Ireland that also cleared West Indies' last eight passage from Pool B.
Photos of the third quarter-final match between Australia and Pakistan being played at the Adelaide Oval on Friday
Pakistan reached 142 for four wickets before play was abandoned due to rain after tea on day one of the second Test against Australia in Melbourne on Monday.
A relieved Australia captured Pakistan's last two wickets to win a captivating first day-night Test in Brisbane by 39 runs on Monday but the touring side won huge admiration for their dogged fourth innings resistance.
Images from Day 1 of the first Test between Australia and Pakistan, in Brisbane, on Thursday.
A defiant fifth-wicket stand of 74 between Younis Khan and Asad Shafiq ensured Pakistan secured a draw in the second Test against New Zealand on Friday to maintain a 1-0 lead in the three-match series.
In order to seal the place in the squad, the duo will have to cancel their league tours in South Africa and Bangladesh.
A hostile trio of Pakistan left-arm fast bowlers took full advantage of a pitch freshened by rain to hand pre-tournament favourites South Africa their second defeat in the ICC World Cup.
Three rained out games and more feared. The ongoing World Cup does seem a bit under the weather, but the International Cricket Council says there's hardly anything it can do to deal with the "extremely unseasonable" cloud cover in the United Kingdom right now.
Pakistani cricket fans and former players have reacted with disappointment and anger to the national team's defeat against arch-rivals India in their Asia Cup Twenty20 match.
India registered just three victories in 11 Tests, worse than even Zimbabwe and the West Indies...
Alastair Cook completed the third-longest innings in Test history and the longest by an Englishman as his side ended on 569-8 on the fourth day of the first Test on Friday, 46 runs ahead of Pakistan.
With two days remaining and 17 wickets still potentially to fall, a draw looks the probable outcome, although Wahab Riaz's removal of Bell (63) and Mark Wood (4) in successive overs near the close again put the hosts in the ascendancy.
Younis Khan became Pakistan's all-time leading run scorer in Test cricket and Shoaib Malik scored his first century in almost six years, as the home side posted 286-4 at the end of the opening day of the first Test against England in Abu Dhabi.
Tamim Iqbal and Imrul Kayes produced a record 273-run partnership in an unbroken opening stand to help Bangladesh whittle down Pakistan's huge lead to 23 runs at the close of the penultimate day of the opening Test at Khulna on Friday.
Pakistan, who briefly topped the Test rankings last year, have now lost six straight Tests, one to West Indies in Sharjah, two in New Zealand and three in Australia.
Former India captain Rahul Dravid believes that India's batting is heavily reliant on Virat Kohli in the middle overs.
Pakistan's experienced batsman Younis Khan dug deep for his 24th Test century and his seventh against Sri Lanka to rescue his struggling side who closed on 261-4 on the opening day of the first Test on Wednesday.
A selection of musings from around the cricket World Cup.
Ahmed Shehzad smashed 95 off 90 balls as Pakistan thrashed below-par Sri Lanka by seven wickets in the fourth one-day match in Colombo on Wednesday to clinch the five-match series.
The 63-run win at the Wanderers ensured that South Africa cannot move ahead of India in the ICC Test Team Rankings at the 3 April cut-off date, even if they go on to win all four Tests against Australia in March.
The ICC hailed the 11th cricket World Cup the 'most popular ever.'
'It was a good performance,' M S Dhoni said after the match. It was a little bit more than that, in that it came just when the team needed to reverse trends, to find self-belief, to be able to look ahead rather than behind.'
The International Cricket Council might have confirmed that the tainted trio of Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Aamir can return to cricket after the expire of their bans, but a divided house seems to have emerged in Pakistani cricket.
The India-Pakistan clash in the ICC World T20 is a battle for redemption -- for India, a chance to get their campaign back on track; for Pakistan, an opportunity to change history, says Dhruv Munjal.
Off the field the Board of Control for Cricket in India looks set for a complete overhaul with Supreme Court's stinging observations tightening the noose around the mandarins of the richest sports body.
All that's transpired on and off the cricket pitch on Monday.
The win at Edgbaston was not the first time an Indian team had vanquished Pakistan in an ICC competition. Rajneesh Gupta surveys the landscape of India-Pakistan encounters in ICC contests.
Tactical genius, uplifting leader, altruistic individual, a man with unwavering certitude. Dhruv Munjal recounts what made Mahendra Singh Dhoni a great captain.
After what at one stage earlier this month looked like a vast game of musical chairs, reigning champions India ended up topping the world rankings when the five-month countdown to the 2015 World Cup started on Sunday.
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