A rampaging Kolkata Knight Riders stand in the way of Delhi Daredevils' revival plan as the two teams, with contrasting runs so far, gear up to clash in an Indian Premier League (IPL) fixture in Kolkata on Friday.
Sanju Samson registered the first century of IPL-12 but ended up on the losing side as Sunrisers Hyderabad beat Rajasthan Royals by five wickets, in Hyderabad, on Friday.
Chennai Super Kings prevailed over a weakened Sunrisers Hyderabad by four runs to consolidate their position at the top of the order
Mumbai Indians will be fretting over their team combination as they take on a marauding Kolkata Knight Riders in an Indian Premier League encounter, in Mumbai, on Sunday.
IMAGES from the Indian Premier League match played between Kings XI Punjab and Sunrisers Hyderabad in Mohali on Thursday
Hosts Punjab frittered away the advantage of solid opening stand as they were all out for 270 as Karnataka captain R Vinay Kumar ran through the middle-order with a five-wicket haul in the Ranji Trophy semi-final in Mohali.
Riding on Samson's record-breaking unbeaten 212 off just 129 balls, Kerala posted a mammoth 377/3 on the board and restricted Goa to 153/3 after play was called off due to inclement weather.
Battered and bruised after four successive defeats, India will make a last-gasp effort to avoid the embarrassment of being whitewashed by an unrelenting Australia when the two sides clash in the fifth and final One-Day International in Sydney, on Saturday.
India will be itching to avenge the thrashing they got in Guwahati when they take on an edgy but resilient Australia in the series-deciding third and final Twenty20 International in Hyderabad on Friday.
India had a forgettable outing with both bat and ball as Australia bounced back in the T20 International series with a crushing eight-wicket win in the second match in Guwahati, on Tuesday.
India's Virat Kohli continued to torment New Zealand with the bat, hitting an unbeaten 85 to secure a six-wicket victory with nearly 17 overs to spare in the first One-day International at Dharamsala on Sunday.
It will be a different sort of challenge for Mahendra Singh Dhoni when he captains a new-look Indian cricket team against Zimbabwe in the first ODI of a short series starting in Harare on Saturday.
Double centuries by in-form Baba Aparajith and Manish Pandey helped South Zone amass 553 for 7 against West Zone on the second day of their four-day Duleep Trophy quarter-final in Chennai on Friday.
Opener Shikhar Dhawan struck his second successive fifty to guide India to a six-wicket victory over Bangladesh in the Twenty20 Tri-Series match in Colombo on Thursday.
Mumbai Indians have a 10-5 record against KKR. Can they maintain the advantage?
Hardik Pandya slammed a quickfire half-century and then claimed a couple of early wickets to help India outclass Australia in the rain-hit first One-Day International in Chennai on Sunday.
MS Dhoni is ready for limited overs series against South Africa.
Nasir Hossain turned in a fine all-round show as Bangladesh 'A' scored a 65-run victory over India 'A' in the second One-dayer and levelled the three-match series, in Bengaluru, on Friday. The 23-year-old all-rounder first hit an unbeaten hundred and then destroyed the home side with a five-wicked haul as Mominul Haque's side avenged the 96-run defeat in the first game, at the M Chinnaswamy stadium.
India are the overwhelming favourites to win the tournament for a record seventh time while Bangladesh will be hoping to be third-time lucky in a summit clash.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Kedar Jadhav claimed three wickets each followed by Rohit Sharma's quickfire half-century as India registered a comprehensive eight-wicket victory against Pakistan.
Faf du Plessis stroked an unbeaten half-century as Chennai Super Kings edged past Sunrisers Hyderabad by two wickets in Qualifier 1 to enter the IPL final, in Mumbai on Tuesday.
A round-up of Ranji matches played on Wednesday
Spin great Erapalli Prasanna says the time has come for Virat Kohli to lead India in all three cricket formats, and Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who is captaining the One-Day International and Twenty20 squads, can continue playing as wicketkeeper-batsman in the limited-overs' formats.
Rohit scored his third ODI double century, settled down most comfortably as India's stop-gap captain, and was India's most valuable player by a long mile. Srinivas Bhogle and Purnendu Maji list the most valuable players in the Sri Lanka ODI series.
Kolkata Knight Riders rode on a brilliant all-round showing from Australia's Chris Lynn to score a dramatic victory over Royal Challengers Bangalore in the Indian Premier League match, in Sharjah, on Thursday night. After propping the Kolkata innings with a 31-ball 45, the 24-year-old Australian pulled off an acrobatic catch at the deep mid-wicket boundary line to dismiss A B de Villiers in the last over of the match, and RCB, chasing 151 for victory, fell short by two runs.
Rohit Sharma-led India's main aim would be to settle their middle-order combination and also find a perfect batting position for Mahendra Singh Dhoni.
Karnataka defended their title in grand style after their top-order led by centurion Mayank Agarwal rose to the occasion to crush a hapless Punjab by 156 runs in the Vijay Hazare one-day tournament final in Ahmedabad on Tuesday.
Boosted by their 3-0 clean sweep of Australia Down Under, a confident India would seek to continue their winning momentum when they take on a depleted and new-look Sri Lanka in the first of three T20 Internationals, in Pune, on Tuesday.
Yuvraj Singh's patchy form and fear of inclement weather will be paramount when India take on the West Indies in the second One Day International, in Port of Spain on Sunday.
Former captain Sunil Gavaskar says the Indian team has an advantage in the upcoming five-match ODI series against Australia as the home team's bowling attack looks thin in the absence of the 'Two Mitchells' -- Johnson and Starc.
India's One-Day International captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, on Tuesday, lamented the absence of a good attacking batsman lower down the order for the forthcoming tour of Australia for a One-day series, starting on January 12.
Come Thursday, Dhoni could possibly be his swansong on home turf and a big score to add to his legacy could be the fans' expectations.
Srinivas Bhogle and Purnendu Maji present the Most Valuable Player Index of the just-concluded three-match series between India and Zimbabwe.
India's batsmen have gone about their job efficiently, posting big totals on the board but the bowlers have been ordinary at best, allowing the hosts to chase down those tall scores in each of the first three ODIs of the five-match series.
Pacer Jasprit Bumrah earned his maiden call-up to the Test squad, while Parthiv Patel made a comeback for the three-Test series in South Africa.
India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni was rested for the first three One-day Internationals against Sri Lanka next month and batting mainstay Virat Kohli will lead the side in his absence.
After hammering the Kiwis 3-0 in the Tests, the focus now shifts to white-ball cricket . New Zealand will be bolstered by the presence of star allrounder Corey Anderson as captain Kane Williamson looks to avenge the defeat in Tests. Also, MS Dhoni's men will need to win the ODI series by a 4-1 margin to claim third place on the ICC ODI Championship.
Robin Uthappa roared back into form with a century, while Karun Nair also cracked a brilliant hundred as the two overcame early jitters to help Karnataka reach 297 for five against Uttar Pradesh on the opening day of their quarter-final Ranji Trophy match.
A win over Sunrisers Hyderabad is imperative for Mumbai Indians to keep their chances alive of making it to the play-offs.
Buoyed by their spectacular win over Chennai Super Kings in the opening match of this season's campaign, Kolkata Knight Riders will take on spirited qualifiers Lahore Lions in their second game of the Champions League Twenty20 in Hyderabad on Sunday.