Back to their winning ways after sucessive victories, a rejuvenated Sunrisers Hyderabad will look to continue their good run when they take on laggards Kings XI Punjab in an IPL T20 clash at the Rajiv Gandhi International stadium on Saturday.
Brendon McCullum smashed an unbeaten 71 after Mohit Sharma's heroics with the ball to guide Chennai Super Kings to a comfortable seven wicket win over defending champions Mumbai Indians in an Indian Premier League match in Dubai.
Notwithstanding Rising Pune Supergiants' poor run in IPL-9, Sunrisers Hyderabad mentor VVS Laxman considers the debutante side as a formidable unit and said his team will have to put its best foot forward when they clash with them in their IPL match on Tuesday. "It goes without saying that (RPS Captain M S Dhoni) Dhoni will be looking forward to use Ashwin against Warner and Shikhar. I believe that Pune has got a very formidable batting line up," Laxman said in a pre-match press conference at Hyderabad. "Lot of people talk about Ajinkya Rahane, Steve Smith, Faf Duplessis being similar. They are all extrordinary T20 players. We cannot at all be complecent or we cannot at all underestimate the batting strength of Pune. We are very mindful," he added. The former Test batsman, however, exuded confidence that SRH can take on any opposition if it sticks to its plans and executes them well. "But, I believe that if we concentrate on our plans and try to execute our plans, then we can do well against any opposition. It's more about concentrating and playing to our strength, while strategizing for each and every opposition batsman or bowler," he said. Noting that the MS Dhoni-led Pune team would look to bounce back strongly, Laxman said no team can be ruled out as it is still the early part of the long IPL tournament.
Daredevils can be the banana peel and Mumbai Indians will be wary after Chennai Super Kings slipped in their penultimate game. The last time the two teams faced off, the Daredevils won by seven wickets in a last-over thriller.
Most farmers depend on rainwater for farming.
Sunrisers Hyderabad face an uphill task to find their way through in the ongoing Indian Premier League as they get ready to take on formidable Chennai Super Kings.
After back-to-back losses against Delhi Daredevils and Rising Pune Supergiant, Sunrisers eked out a seven-wicket win over table-toppers Mumbai Indians at Hyderabad and David Warner's men need another inspiring show.
A special relief camp has also been set up in Gorakhpur.
Karnataka's in-form young opener K L Rahul has staked a strong claim for his inclusion in India's Test squad to Australia.
Keeping in view the approaching Lok Sabha elections, the All Indian Congress Committee has appointed a battery of high-profile spokesmen for the Congress to showcase the achievements of the last 10 years of United Progressive Alliance government and publicise the various sectors where the UPA has performed. Renu Mittal reports
Sunrisers Hyderabad will aim to stop a rampaging Rising Pune Supergiant when both teams meet in the Indian Premier League, on Saturday, in a bid to cement their place in the play-offs.
Delhi Daredevils paid the price for flawed team selection and poor fielding as Sunrisers Hyderabad pushed them towards exit door with a seven-wicket victory in an IPL encounter, in Hyderabad, on Saturday night.
Daredevils once again had a stop-start campaign in the ongoing IPL and are standing on the verge of yet another early elimination.
Lack of intent in Daredevils players has been very surprising.
A round-up of the opening day's actions of the Ranji Trophy matches being played in different parts of the country.
Resuming at the overnight score of 36 for 2 on Day 3, Bangladesh 'A' were shot out for 151 in 39.3 overs, with Ishwar Pandey (3-28), Jayant Yadav (3-48) and Abhimanyu Mithun (2-23) doing the bulk of damage at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni's form will remain in focus when the struggling Rising Pune Supergiant square off against defending champions Sunrisers Hyderabad in an Indian Premier League encounter, in Pune, on Saturday.
BCCI's interim President Jagmohan Dalmiya has promised that there will be no cover-up in the probe into the alleged conflict of interests issue over Mahendra Singh Dhoni holding stakes in a sports management firm that manages him and several other Indian cricketers.
Skipper Manoj Tiwary and lower-order batsman Pankaj Shaw cracked individual hundreds but could not save Bengal from suffering a huge 355-run defeat against Madhya Pradesh in the five-day Ranji Trophy quarter-final at Mumbai's Wankhede Stadium on Sunday. Starting the final day on 113 for 3 and chasing an improbable victory target of 788, Bengal were kept in the fight till the extended tea session by Tiwary (124), Shaw (118) and Ashok Dinda (52) before they folded up for 432. Lanky pacer Ishwar Pandey once again led the bowling honours for MP with a haul of 4 for 93 to add to his first innings tally of 4 for 45, while debutant pacer Chandrakant Sakure finished with a match haul of six wickets that included his second innings 3 for 114. MP, who thus recorded their second outright win over Bengal in nine outings in the tournament, now take on 40-time champions Mumbai in the five-day semi finals commencing at Cuttack on February 13.
A summary of the third day's play in the Ranji Trophy matches played at various venues across the country.
On a day dominated by pace bowlers from both sides, Madhya Pradesh held the upper hand over Bengal by taking a handsome first innings lead of 227 runs after skittling out the latter for a paltry 121 in their Ranji Trophy quarter-final, at the Brabourne Stadium, on Thursday.
Three persons were on Friday sentenced to 20 years imprisonment by a court in Jaipur for raping a 20-year-old Japanese tourist on the Jaipur-Ajmer National Highway in February.
Skipper Dinesh Karthik will face a big test when a struggling Kolkata Knight Riders lock horns with a resurgent Delhi Daredevils, led by double title winning former KKR skipper Gautam Gambhir, in a much-anticipated IPL clash, in Kolkata, on Monday.
A summary of the first day's play in the Ranji Trophy league matches at various venues.
A round-up of Ranji matches played on Monday.
India's out-of-favour seniors Zaheer Khan and Virender Sehwag have been omitted from the Board of Control for Cricket in India's contracted players' list for 2013-14. The retiring Sachin Tendulkar, captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina and Ravichandran Ashwin are the five players in Grade 'A', and will pocket Rs 1 crore for the 2013-14 season.
Even as both the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and Opposition Congress in Madhya Pradesh have been making claims of bringing forward women in politics, the parties have allotted few tickets to them for the November 25 assembly elections.
Even as both the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and Opposition Congress in Madhya Pradesh have been making claims of bringing forward women in politics, the parties have allotted few tickets to them for the November 25 assembly elections.
England's humiliating series defeat in India painfully exposed an alarming paucity in the side's slow bowling options and drove home the fact they will continue to struggle in South Asia until they unearth some world class spinners. Retired off-spinner Graeme Swann had bemoaned England's indifferent approach towards slow bowling before the five-match series started and his fears were confirmed after the touring side were handed a 4-0 drubbing.
Cheteshwar Pujara gained a spot to be the highest-ranked Indian batsman at seventh even as R Ashwin remained steady eighth in the bowlers' list of the latest ICC Test rankings released on Sunday.
Ravichandran Ashwin has become the fastest Indian bowler to take bag hundred Test wickets during the second match against West Indies at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.
Silki Kumari ,Chanchal Kumar and Manish Kumar, just three of the dozens of children of Bihar's Muzaffarpur district, which is hit by an outbreak of encephalitis, have appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to help save their lives after 18 children died of the disease in the last few days.
A look at this week's hits and misses.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni will lead an 18-man squad for the Test series against England. Opener Gautam Gambhir, whose last Test was in 2012, makes a comeback while two uncapped medium pacers - Ishwar Pandey and Pankaj Singh - find a place in the team after Zaheer Khan, who had to set out of the India leg of the Indian Premier League following a back injury, was overlooked.
In a flip-flop, the Election Commission on Friday said exit polls will be banned till May 16, the day of counting, but soon after clarified that the prohibition will be in place only till the end of the last phase of polling on May 12.
Chasing an elusive dream of winning their first cricket Test in India, Sri Lanka will begin their gruelling tour with a two-day tour fixture against a depleted Board President's XI, in Kolkata, on Saturday.
As India go in to the four-match Test series against Australia that commences in Adelaide on Tuesday, here is a factbox.
Suresh Raina smashed an unbeaten half-century as Chennai Super Kings booked a berth in the second qualifier with a comfortable seven-wicket win over holders Mumbai Indians in the IPL eliminator in Mumbai on Wednesday.
Two Election Commission personnel were on Thursday beaten up while they were videographing a bike rally by Trinamool workers at Manikchak in Malda district, inviting the ire of the poll body which has directed authorities to initiate stern action against the accused and file a report on the incident.
Robin Uthappa was elegance personified during his 52-ball 80 as he powered Kolkata Knight Riders to a convincing six-wicket win over Mumbai Indians in their Indian Premier League match in Cuttack on Wednesday.