Australia returned to the top of the Test world rankings on Wednesday after Steve Smith and Adam Voges steered the tourists to victory in the second Test against New Zealand to seal a comprehensive 2-0 series win.
Joe Burns and Usman Khawaja reduced Australia's victory target to 131 runs with nine wickets in hand at the end of the fourth day of the second Test against New Zealand at Hagley Oval on Tuesday.
Opener Ian Bell plundered 187 off 145 balls and Stuart Broad captured four wickets as England crushed the Australian Prime Minister's XI by 60 runs in Canberra on Wednesday. Bell starred in England's imposing 391 for six to set the PM's eleven a run-chase of almost eight runs an over at Manuka Oval.
Half-centuries from Kraigg Brathwaite and Marlon Samuels steered a battling West Indies to 147 for two at the close on day three of the second Test against South Africa on Sunday.
Sri Lanka ended the third day's play at Hagley Oval in Christchurch on 293 for five, still 10 runs away from making New Zealand bat again after they had been asked to follow on.
The New Zealand captain belted 18 fours and 11 sixes in his innings as he became the first New Zealand batsman to surpass 1000 Test runs in a calendar year and broke his own New Zealand record for the fastest century, which came off 74 balls.
Dale Steyn ripped through the West Indies top order to claim his 25th five-wicket haul in Test cricket and give South Africa an innings and 220-run victory on the fourth morning of the first Test on Saturday.
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.
Martin Guptill became the highest run scorer in One-Day International cricket this year as he guided New Zealand to a comprehensive seven-wicket victory over Sri Lanka in the first game of their five match series in Christchurch, on Saturday.
All-rounder Stuart Binny stamped his class by hitting a sparkling unbeaten century as Karnataka took firm grip of the Irani Trophy match against Rest of India (ROI) with a 189-run first innings lead in Bangalore on Monday.
Karnataka captain R Vinay Kumar's led from the front with a six-wicket haul as the Ranji Trophy champions gained upperhand against Rest of India on the first day of the Irani Cup match despite a gutsy effort from wicketkeepe-batsman Dinesh Karthik.
They have not lost to the West Indies in 14 Tests dating back to 2003.
All-rounder Shakib Al Hasan became the third man to hit a hundred and take 10-wickets in the same match as Bangladesh beat Zimbabwe by 162 runs in the second Test to take an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match series. Zimbabwe, who lost the first Test in Dhaka by three wickets, folded for 151 in their second innings at Khulna as they chased 314 for victory.
Kohli started his English summer on a bright note hitting an unbeaten 52 off 55 balls while Mahendra Singh Dhoni also played some delightful strokes square off the wicket.
Pakistan captain Misbah-ul-Haq fell just short of his sixth Test century but his team clung on to their slim hopes of salvaging the second Test against Sri Lanka after a stirring rearguard action in Dubai on Saturday.
Chitrita Banerji's new book, Bengali Cooking, takes readers into the kitchens of West Bengal and Bangladesh through the changing seasons. And if it starts to rain, nothing matters more to the Bengali palate than the hilsa fish and the many ways it can be consumed.
Pakistan fast bowlers Junaid Khan and Bilawal Bhatti scythed through Sri Lanka's batting during an exciting afternoon session to restrict their opponents to 204 on the first day of the opening Test in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday.
Young batsman Shreyas Iyer pounded the Australian bowlers with his career-best unbeaten 202 before the three-day warm-up game between India A and the visitors ended in a draw, in Mumbai, on Sunday.
A devastating spell from seam bowler James Anderson set England up for a nine-wicket triumph in the second test against West Indies on Saturday as the tourists went 1-0 up in the three-match series.
James Pattinson grabbed three wickets to brighten Australia's prospects of a comprehensive victory in the second Test against New Zealand with the hosts reeling at 121 for four by the end of the third day on Monday.
Hashim Amla notched his 20th Test century but three wickets for 34-year-old debutant Zulfiqar Babar allowed Pakistan to restrict South Africa to 245 for eight on the opening day of the first Test in Abu Dhabi on Monday.
Steve Smith and Usman Khawaja hammered home the advantage their bowlers had established when they took Australia to 147-3, a deficit of just 36 runs, at the close of the opening day's play in the first Test against New Zealand on Friday.
Opener Kraigg Brathwaite continued his good run with another splendid century while Narasingh Deonaraine cracked a flamboyant 93 as the second unofficial Test between India 'A' and West Indies 'A' ended in a tame draw in Shimoga
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.
Needing 392 runs to avoid the follow-on, after the South Africans posted a mammoth 542 in their first innings, the hosts were shot out for a meagre 204 in 66.3 overs in their first essay, conceding a huge lead of 338 runs.
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.
Tillakaratne Dilshan scored his 17th One-day international century and shared a second wicket stand of 184 with Kumar Sangakkara to guide Sri Lanka to a series clinching eight wicket win over South Africa in the fourth match at Pallekele on Sunday.
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Jos Buttler and Joe Root thrashed brilliant centuries in England's highest One-Day International score on the way to a 210-run rout of New Zealand in the first game of the series at Edgbaston on Tuesday.
Australia batsman Adam Voges produced a Man of the Match performance as they emphatically beat West Indies by nine wickets in the first Test in Dominica on Friday
West Indies cruised to a five-wicket win over England in the second Twenty20 at the Kensington Oval in Barbados on Tuesday to take an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match series.
England openers Alastair Cook and Jonathan Trott made a solid start in reply to West Indies' total of 299 by reaching 74 without loss on the second day of the second Test on Wednesday.
Set an improbable 438 for victory after England declared their second innings at 333 for 7, the West Indies were 98 for 2 at close on Day 4 of the first Test.
Young Karun Nair completed a hat-trick of first-class centuries in his debut season as Karnataka seized control of their Ranji Trophy semi-final against hosts Punjab, taking an 81-run first innings lead on the third day, in Mohali, on Monday. In reply to Punjab's first innings total of 270, the visitors ended the third day's play on 351 for 5, with Nair unbeaten on a career best score of 107 in company of comeback man Amit Verma, who struck an unbeaten 65.
Wriddhiman Saha's century went in vain as Maharashtra crushed Bengal by a convincing margin of 10 wickets to storm into the final of the Ranji Trophy, in Indore.
Sri Lanka lost early wickets in their second innings but extended their lead to 220 runs over Pakistan in the third and final Test in Sharjah to boost their chances of a series victory.
Seamer VRV Singh returned with a five-wicket haul and helped Punjab book a semi-final spot beating Jammu and Kashmir by 100 on the fourth day of their last-eight stage match of their Ranji Trophy tie in Vadodara on Saturday.
Kedar Jadhav's sizzling century and a cracking innings of 91 from young Vijay Zol helped Maharashtra stun defending champions Mumbai by eight wickets, to storm into the semi-finals of the Ranji Trophy, in Mumbai on Saturday.
Riding on right arm leg-spinner Shreyas Gopal's five-wicket haul, Karnataka beat Uttar Pradesh by 92 runs to enter into the semi-finals of the Ranji Trophy at Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore on Saturday.
Nifty, which has struggled around 8550-8560 levels managed to blast past this resistance and close above the psychological mark of 8600.
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