Hope smashed three sixes and eight fours in his 145-ball 109 not out to help West Indies overhauled the target,
1983 World Cup winner Krishnamachari Srikkanth believes Virat Kohli's captaincy, and Jasprit Bumrah and Yuzvendra Chahal's excellent bowling, were the key to India's narrow victory over Afghanistan.
In other big movements, Punjab Kings have released their last edition's captain Mayank Agarwal, while West Indies skipper Nicholas Pooran was released by Sunrisers Hyderabad.
Shakib Al Hasan jumped to the top of the latest MRF Tyres ICC ODI rankings for all-rounders, which doesn't feature a single Indian in the top-10 chart.
Sri Lanka defeated Afghanistan by 34 runs in the ICC Men's Cricket World Cup match at Sophia Gardens in Cardiff on Tuesday.
Having been put through some anxious moments during their match against Afghanistan on Wednesday, India's Virat Kohli conceded that the team's inability to bowl accurately at the death is a "worrying factor".
On the ICC ODI Team Rankings, No.1 ranked Australia has moved up from 118 points to 120 points, while New Zealand has dropped behind India in fourth position. New Zealand had started the series on 112 points, but the 3-0 defeat has meant it has dropped to 109 points.
Rashid Khan took three wickets as Afghanistan inched closer to victory against Bangladesh on the fourth day, in the one-off Test.
Operating like a well-oiled unit, Chennai Super Kings will start as overwhelming favourites when they clash with struggling Sunrisers Hyderabad in the IPL match in New Delhi on Wednesday.
Rajneesh Gupta brings you all the numbers from the first 17 games in IPL-12.
If RCB win their remaining two games, they will move to 20 points and have a chance of finishing in the top two.
Almost out of reckoning for a place in the play-offs, bottom-placed Sunrisers Hyderabad will look to play party-poopers when they take on an equally struggling Punjab Kings in the battle of laggards in the IPL in Sharjah on Saturday.
Afghanistan beat Pakistan by 22 runs on Thursday to reach the final of the Asian Games cricket tournament as the war-torn nation's battling team continued their fairytale rise in the sport.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India has turned down the Afghanistan Cricket Board's request to host its
KL Rahul retained his third position, while India captain Virat Kohli improved a rung to the seventh spot in the ICC men's T20I Batting Rankings.
Debutants Afghanistan made an impressive start to their World Twenty20 campaign, beating Ireland by five wickets in a warm-up match in Guyana on Wednesday.
The 31-year-old Asghar had replaced Nabi as captain in 2015.
Defending champions Mumbai Indians will start as firm favourites against bottom-placed SunRisers Hyderabad in the IPL match in Delhi on Tuesday.
Rajneesh Gupta presents Sunrisers Hyderabad's IPL record over the years.
With nine defeats from 11 matches, the Sunrisers are languishing at the bottom, while KKR, in fourth place with 10 points from 12 matches, still have hopes of qualifying for the knock-out stage.
Virtually out of the play-off race, bottom-placed Sunrisers Hyderabad will hope to keep their new-found momentum intact when they face table toppers Chennai Super Kings in the IPL, in Sharjah, on Thursday.
'Warner was a little animated because we weren't playing very good cricket and we lost'
RCB will be strengthened further when the immensely-talented Devdutt Padikkal makes the team after his recovery from COVID-19.
With 871 rating points, Virat Kohli is at the top followed by Rohit (855) and Pakistan's Babar Azam (829).
West Indies opener Chris Gayle, who is a popular name among T20 leagues around the world, was not picked along Sri Lankan fast bowler Lasith Malinga.
Afghanistan gave away 35 extras, which proved to be Sri Lanka's second top scorer
Much was expected from a revamped Kolkata Knight Riders set-up but it seemed Dinesh Karthik did not learn from his past mistakes
Afghanistan roared into the main draw of the World Twenty20 with an emphatic 59-run victory over Zimbabwe in a first round Group B match on Saturday. Mohammad Shahzad (40) gave Afghanistan a flying start before Mohammad Nabi (52) and Samiullah Shenwari (43) added 98 runs off 64 balls to power them to 186-6, their highest total in this format. The associate nation then returned to bowl out Zimbabwe for 127 to register a memorable victory over a full-member nation and join England, South Africa, West Indies and Sri Lanka in Group One of the Super 10 stage of the tournament. "This was a very important match for us. People in Afghanistan are crazy about cricket. They love the game, so (winning it) was very important for us," victorious captain Asghar Stanikzai said. With a place in the main draw at stake, Stanikzai opted to bat and was vindicated as Shahzad set alight Nagpur's VCA Stadium with his swashbuckling batting. The portly 28-year-old hit Tendai Chatara for four successive boundaries after a quiet opening over, forcing the pacer off attack. Donald Tiripano was pressed into service but there was no respite from Shahzad who hit him for three successive fours. Shahzad greeted left-arm spinner Sean Williams by hitting his first delivery for a six but fell in the same over after a 23-ball blitz attempting a reverse sweep.
Trinbago Knight Riders have ownership the same as IPL franchise Kolkata Knight Riders while the Zouks are owned by the same promoters as Kings XI Punjab.
While Gurkeerat Mann played second fiddle, Shimron Hetmyer took charge and battered the bowling all around the park.
Smith's player of the match effort of 211 and 82 runs in the two innings has lifted him to 937 rating points, only 10 less than his all-time best aggregate achieved in December 2017.
Afghanistan captain Mohammad Nabi was almost lost for words after his side qualified for the 2015 ICC World Cup on Friday.
'While you're playing in the middle it is simple -- just play your game and choose bowlers that we want to hit first and obviously, (Mohammad) Nabi and Rashid (Khan) were the best bowlers on their side. It was an interesting game and I'm happy that we won'
Indian chinaman Kuldeep Yadav, who played a key role in India's series win over West Indies, on Monday, leapfrogged 14 places to a career-high 23rd in the latest ICC T20 rankings.
KXIP got its campaign back on track with three consecutive wins -- over mighty Delhi Capitals, Mumbai Indians and Royal Challengers Bangalore and the KL Rahul-led side would be hoping to carry the winning momentum forward to break into top four.
RR have a lot of issues to sort out, particularly in the absence of key foreign players like Jofra Archer and Ben Stokes.
Rishabh Pant's brute power will be put to test against Rashid Khan's bagful of tricks in an IPL encounter where Delhi Capitals will start as favourites against SunRisers Hyderabad due to their better bowling resources.
CSK and Sunrisers Hyderabad (since inception) have traditionally been two of the most balanced sides in most IPL editions but both have ensured scratchy starts this year
This was Sri Lanka's second loss in as many matches, and, as a consequence, they have been knocked out of the tournament.
Mumbai Indians beat Sunrisers Hyderabad by 42 runs in their final league fixture in Abu Dhabi on Friday but still failed to qualify for the IPL play-offs.
