South African state prosecutors started cross-examining Olympic and Paralympic sprinter Oscar Pistorius on Wednesday, vowing to "get to the truth" surrounding the killing of Pistorius' girlfriend on Valentine's day last year.
The inaugural edition's winner Mumbai Indians will bank on their core group of players while two-time finalists Delhi Capitals will expect fireworks from Shafali Verma when they face-off in the second game of the Women's Premier League here on Saturday. The finalists of the first WPL in 2023, both Mumbai Indians and Delhi Capitals made it to the knockouts in the second edition last year but lost to the eventual champions Royal Challengers Bengaluru in the eliminator and the final respectively. Those defeats were certainly not reflective of how well MI and DC had fared until the knockouts stage, with Harmanpreet Kaur's side finishing second in the points table with five wins in eight matches and Meg Lanning's team topping it with six wins in as many outings. The winners of WPL 2023, Mumbai Indians tend to lean on their core group of players both overseas and Indian and a similar approach can be expected this year, with only a few changes taking place in terms of squad composition. India pacer Pooja Vastrakar, who was grappling with an unspecified injury, was ruled out of the competition and has been replaced by slow left-arm orthodox bowler Parunika Sisodia, who was one of the main performers in India's title-winning campaign in the U-19 Women's T20 World Cup recently. Mumbai Indians have let go of England's Issy Wong, who took the first-ever WPL hat-trick in 2023, after the player lost form and the franchise found the leader of their attack in South Africa's Shabnim Ismail. Among domestic talents, another member of the U-19 T20 World Cup winning squad G Kamalini would be one to watch out for, having finished as the third highest scorer in the competition with 143 runs in seven matches. Apart from a strong leader in Harmanpreet, MI have strong figures from other international sides such as Nat Sciver-Brunt (England), Hayley Matthews (West Indies), Amelia Kerr (New Zealand), as well as South Africans Nadine de Klerk, Shabnim Ismail and Chloe Tryon. While Yastika Bhatia is MI's No 1 wicketkeeper-batter, other Indian players in Saika Ishaque, Sajana Sajeevan, uncapped Akshita Maheshwari and Amanjot Kaur will be expected to play their roles to perfection. On their part, Delhi Capitals will be keen to do one better after finishing as runner-up for two times in a row ever since the competition began. One of the most consistent teams in the competition, the Lanning-led Delhi have strong talent base across departments but the key will be to deliver in crucial matches. All eyes will be on the explosive Indian batter Shafali who has responded to her exclusion from the Indian side with runs in domestic cricket. She forms a lethal opening pair with Lanning at the top, while the likes of Australia's Annabel Sutherland, England's Alice Capsey and India's Jemimah Rodrigues form the core of their middle order. All-rounder Sutherland will hope to draw inspiration from her recent success of having struck 163 in the only Test of the women's Ashes followed by winning the highest individual honour in Australian cricket. While Delhi boasts of three wicketkeeper-batters in India's Taniyaa Bhatia, Nandini Kashyap and Scotland's Sarah Bryce, their bowling looks settled with Marizanne Kapp as the leader of the attack, backed by Australia's Jess Jonassen, India's Radha Yadav and Shikha Pandey as well as Titas Sadhu.
J P Duminy, who joined the Proteas side as their batting coach in March last year, left his role with immediate effect following a mutual agreement, said the country's cricket governing body (CSA).
Capping a prolonged power struggle within the country's ruling African National Congress, South African President Thabo Mbeki on Sunday night announced his resignation but denied the charge of interfering with justice in a corruption case to nail his challenger for the top post Jacob Zuma."Fellow South Africans, since the attainment of our freedom in 1994, we have acted consistently to respect and defend the independence of the judiciary," he said.
South African batsmen will go into the fifth ODI as a more confident unit, having learnt from their mistakes against the Indian spinners.
All-rounder Dottin, who is currently in India with the West Indies team for the white-ball series, was the costliest among overseas players and was bought by the Giants for the second time in the auction.
Just as Nelson Mandela united South Africans of all races in life, his death is bringing them together to celebrate his exemplary journey and achievements rather than grieving over his passing.
Sanju Samson became the first Indian to hit two consecutive hundreds in T20 Internationals to power the visitors to a thumping 60-run victory against South Africa.
South Africa coach Micky Arthur alleged that both Harbhajan Singh and S Sreesanth had abused the Proteas players during their Test series against India earlier this year.
A young South African cricketer has collapsed and died of suspected heart failure while training with his academy side. 22-year old Lukhanya Tsiki died during a practice session in Eastern Cape on Monday (April 18) after he collapsed at the Fort Hare Academy. The group of players, who were practicing with him, tried to revive him before he was shifted to a hospital. Tsiki passed away later in the day. Tsiki was an all-rounder who batted left-handed and bowled right-arm medium pace. He was studying a diploma course in Marketing Management at Fort Hare Academy.
Jasprit Bumrah, who captained India in Perth, returned with excellent match figures of 8/72 as India crushed Australia by 295 runs.
Earlier, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had extended an invitation to United States President Donald Trump, but he had expressed his inability citing "scheduling conflicts".
Shaheen Shah Afridi's Test future is under scrutiny after he was sidelined for the two-Test series against the West Indies at home.
Star opener Smriti Mandhana, wicketkeeper-batter Richa Ghosh and all-rounder Deepti Sharma were on Saturday named in the ICC Women's T20I Team of Year 2024.
Du Plessis backed Kohli, his one-time teammate at Royal Challengers Bangalore, to come back stronger from the struggles, and said retirement is a "very personal" choice.
'It feels great to carry on this musical tradition.'
Test coach Jason Gillespie will fill in for Gary Kirsten in their limited-overs tour of Australia beginning next week
Morne Morkel, has revealed his newfound love for Indian cuisine, particularly dosas and murgh malai chicken.
Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Ltd on Monday said its wholly-owned Swiss subsidiary
Bumrah leads a competitive field, including South African speedster Kagiso Rabada (856) and Australian pacer Josh Hazlewood (851).
Former South African Olympian Gregg Clark has been appointed head coach of India's junior men's hockey side to prepare them for the World Cup to be held in New Delhi later this year.
As the nation celebrates its 76th Republic Day, India's sports fraternity took to social media to share their patriotic sentiments and wishes with fans across the country on Sunday.
South African T20 sensation Richard Levi was signed by Mumbai Indians as a replacement for former Australian batsman Andrew Symonds, for the fifth edition of Indian Premier League 2012.
The tourists warmed up for the first ODI against India with an eight-wicket victory.
The Australian paceman took four wickets to lead his team to an 80-run win over South Africa
'Don't waste your time there, Gary. Come back to coach Team India,' Harbhajan, who was part of the 2011 World Cup winning Indian team Kirsten coached, had posted on X.
Overall, in 25 matches Maharaj has picked up 59 wickets, averaging 17.76 with a bowling strike rate of 35.5.
The South Africans seem to be making the most of it on the Indian soil as both their batsmen and bowlers have proved their worth in the IPL so far and even look set to dominate the fifth edition of the tournament.
Hall, who played 21 Tests and 88 ODIs for South Africa, is currently in England playing for Kent.
'We know Dinesh Karthik will be here this year which is fantastic and it's great for the tournament.'
South African batsman Vaughn van Jaarsveld has been banned from cricket for three months following an appeal from the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the South African Cricketers' Association (SACA) said on Thursday.
The scholarship has been introduced to encourage others to be 'pure and focus on school'.
Amid fears of the spread of new Covid strain 'Omicron' looming large, two South African nationals have tested positive for the coronavirus, and their samples have been sent for further tests to ascertain about the variant, a top official said on Saturday.
Spin great Ravichandran Ashwin says New Zealand, despite the absence of the long-serving pace duo of Trent Boult and Tim Southee, who have quit playing the 50-over format, will pose a challenge to India.
"Glad to have met President @CyrilRamaphosa. At a time when India is marking the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, it is our honour to welcome President Ramaphosa as the Chief Guest for the 2019 Republic Day celebrations. Bapu's close link with South Africa is well known," Modi tweeted after the meeting.
Four South African crickets, including former test wicketkeeper Thami Tsolekile, have been banned for between seven and 12 years for attempting to fix matches, Cricket South Africa announced on Monday.
South African world 800 metres champion Caster Semenya was cleared on Tuesday to compete as a woman, nearly a year after controversial gender tests put her career on hold.
The vuvuzelas finally died down and South Africa's elation turned to despondency after a disastrous defeat by Uruguay.
Stars go on the loveliest holidays -- exotic locations with a lot of adventure thrown in. We bring you their travels in a special series.
Former Indian cricketer Sarandeep Singh believes India's bowling attack holds the key to victory in the T20 World Cup final against South Africa
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