India captain Virat Kohli rejected criticism of the pitch for the first Test against South Africa in Mohali and said it was 'errors in shot selection' that brought about wickets for spinners rather than the pitch playing tricks, a view his rival captain Hashim Amla also shared.
With India being outplayed in the Twenty20s, captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni will face added pressure to perform and lead India from the front against a formidable South African unit in the five-match ODI cricket series starting in Kanpur on Sunday.
Aiden Blizzard played a blistering knock as Hobart Hurricanes beat Cape Cobras by six wickets in a group league encounter of the Champions League T20, to keep their hopes of qualifying for the semi-final alive.
Mohammed Shami led India's fight-back with a career-best five-wicket haul as India snapped nine wickets for 53 runs to dismiss South Africa for 177 and avoid a humiliating whitewash in the three-match series.
With the teams entering the final phase of their preparations for next year's World Cup, former batting great Ian Chappell said defending champions India, Australia and South Africa are the favourites to win the game's showpiece event.
While South Africa grabbed a 1-0 lead in the three-match series, the visitors squandered a golden opportunity to script a memorable win outside the sub-continent.
The three-Test South Africa series is the first of a gruelling 2018-19 season that includes tours to England and Australia.
South Africa reclaimed top spot in the Test rankings after grimly hanging on for a draw in the second and final Test against Sri Lanka in Colombo, on Monday to win the series 1-0.
Opener Dean Elgar struck a magnificent century for South Africa but Sri Lanka came back strongly with four wickets in the final session to balance the scales on the opening day of the first Test on Wednesday.
After a dream ODI debut last month, teenaged paceman Mustafizur Rahman announced his Test arrival by claiming three wickets in four balls as Bangladesh bowled out South Africa for 248 on the opening day of the first Test in Chittagong on Tuesday.
Kings XI Punjab put the brakes on their summer of discontent as they notched up a convincing seven-wicket win over defending champions Mumbai Indians in the Indian Premier League (IPL).
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.
The 28-year-old Kohli scored 62 and six not out to move to 833 points, within 14 points of England's Joe Root in a list led by Australia captain Steve Smith.
Graeme Smith made three in his final Test innings as South Africa were slipping towards a heavy defeat at the close on the fourth day of the series-deciding third Test against Australia on Tuesday.
South Africa were left to rue the loss of cheap wickets after battling to 214 for five on the opening day of the second Test against Australia on Thursday.
Virat wouldn't have got 700 runs and smashed four centuries in Tests in Australia, says Ravi Shastri.
Jacques Kallis inched closer to scoring a century in his final Test after guiding South Africa to 299 for five before rain and bad light brought a premature end to the third day of the second Test against India on Saturday.
Captain Virat Kohli's blazing blade ensured a comfortable seven-wicket victory in the one-off Twenty20 International as the visitors completed a 9-0 rout of Sri Lanka across all three formats, in Colombo, on Wednesday.
Kagiso Rabada said South Africa are gunning for a whitewash of India, having trampled the visitors in the first two matches.
Virat Kohli and Bhuvneshwar Kumar are India's highest-ranked batsman and bowler in third and 13th positions respectively.
'This WC will heavily rely on openers as they have to set the tone'
All-rounder Andre Russell smashed a match-winning half-century as West Indies claimed a nail-biting one-wicket victory over South Africa in the fourth one-day international at St George's Park on Sunday.
'Batting against spin bowling you need to have your own individual plan. You can't go into a match saying, "Oh, this wicket is going to spin this much".'
Khurram Manzoor was unbeaten on 131 and Pakistan ended on 263 for three, a lead of 14 runs over South Africa who were bowled out for 249 early in the morning session.
'We should be open to looking at Ramdas Athavale's suggestion of reservations. India will not be unique if it chooses to do this, says Aakar Patel.
For fast rising South Africa pacer Kagiso Rabada, bowling to Mahendra Singh Dhoni in the final over of the first One-Dayer at Green Park in Kanpur was the "biggest pressure moment" of his fledgling career.
India needs to get the team composition right in the third and final Twenty20 International to prevent South Africa from recording a clean sweep, in Kolkata, on Thursday.
AB de Villiers Opening the batting is an experiment for the World Twenty20, says Farhaan Behardien.
Kumar Sangakkara blasted a career-best 169 to help Sri Lanka crush South Africa by a huge margin of 180 runs in the first One-Day International, in Colombo, on Saturday.
Srinivas Bhogle and Purnendu Maji list the 50 Most Valuable Players in the 2017 Champions Trophy.
Saker took the unusual step of publicly criticising his bowlers in the fourth and final Test against India in Sydney last month, revealing discord with staff over tactics.
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.
Statistical highlights of the ICC Champions Trophy match between India and Sri Lanka, in London.
Table-toppers Sunrisers Hyderabad will look to quickly bounce back from the disappointing loss against Delhi Daredevils and seal their place in the play-off when they take on a resurgent Kings XI Punjab in an IPL clash in Mohali on Sunday. Knowing that there is scramble among top teams for the playoff berth and holding on to top position is not an easy task, SRH will have to put the loss against Delhi behind and look to put up an all-round performance on Sunday. What has made this game at the I S Bindra PCA stadium even more important for Hyderabad is the fact that Punjab, which has struggled through the tournament, has suddenly started turning over a leaf under their new captain Murali Vijay, whose appointment was made mid-way. The Punjab outfit, which is lying at the seventh place with four wins from 11 outings, pulled off a comprehensive seven-wicket victory against Mumbai Indians at Visakhapatnam on Friday night.
Hashim Amla says his team is not used to the hammering that it has received in the ongoing ODI series against India and the emphatic nature of defeat has taken the Proteas back to the drawing board ahead of the World Cup next year.
Warner, Parthiv, Amla, Bhuvi, Jasprit... Rediff.com's Harish Kotian picks his Dream Team after IPL 10.
Any hopes that the issue of race in South Africa's sport was fading were damaged this week when the government banned its national cricket, rugby, athletics and netball federations from bidding for international tournaments due to a failure to increase their number of black players.
Faced with the prospect of a humiliating 0-3 series whitewash, a desperate India would be aiming to bounce back to winning ways against an unrelenting South Africa in the third and final Test, starting in Johannesburg, on Wednesday.
Rajneesh Gupta presents all the fascinating career numbers of players in the World Cup.
Srinivas Bhogle and Purnendu Maji figure out who are the most valuable players after the league phase of the World Cup intheir latest update.
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