A brilliant 81 by captain Brendon McCullum and an equally well-compiled 71 not out by Brad Hodge enabled Kolkata Knight Riders beat Chennai Super Kings by seven wickets in their Indian Premier League match at SuperSport Park, Centurion, on Monday.
Barring Suresh Raina's match-winning century against South Africa and the hollow win over Afghanistan, the Indians were outplayed in all three matches of the Super Eights. It seems Mahendra Singh Dhoni used up all his intelligence and stamina to steer Chennai Super Kings to the Indian Premier League crown and had nothing left for the bigger T20 bash in the Caribbean.
Images from the Indian Premier League match between Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals at Centurion on Thursday.
Kings XI Punjab face the uphill task of not only pulling the rug from under the feet of formidable Chennai Super Kings but also boosting their net run-rate in the last IPL round-robin match to salvage hopes of sneaking into the play-offs.
Despite the 24-run loss to Australia in the fourth One-Day International at Mohali on Monday, the Indian selectors chose to retain the 15-member squad for the last three games in the seven-match series.
R Vinay Kumar and Murali Vijay are the new faces in India's 15-man squad for the Twenty20 World Cup, beginning in the West Indies, on Friday.
Australia were 285 for five at stumps, with Marcus North unbeaten on 43 and Tim Paine on eight, on the opening day of the second Test against India at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore on Saturday.
Chennai Super Kings take on table toppers Sunrisers Hyderabad in an Indian Premier League match, in Pune, on Sunday.
Suresh Raina's unbeaten half-century guided Chennai Super Kings to a thumping nine-wicket victory over Kolkata Knight Riders and took them to second place in the IPL league table.
Murali Vijay blasted a quickfire half-century to get Chennai Super Kings back to winning ways with a five-wicket victory against Royal Challengers Bangalore wickets in the Indian Premier League in Chennai on Wednesday. Vijay smashed 78 from a mere 39 deliveries, hitting six sixes and four boundaries, to set the foundation for Chennai's successful run chase.
Chennai Super Kings captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni on Wednesday heaped praise on Suresh Raina and Murali Vijay for setting the platform for the comfortable 97-run victory over Wayamba in Group A match of the Champions League Twenty20 cricket tournament in Centurion.
Former Australia and Chennai Super Kings batsman Matthew Hayden said meeting Dalai Lamai is among the most special moments of his Indian Premier League career.
A stat pack of India and New Zealand's ODI careers...
After the gruelling league phase of the ongoing IPL, the stage is set for the play-offs with CSK and MI clashing against each other for a place in May 12 final.
Delhi Daredevils will play table-toppers Chennai Super Kings in a crucial Indian Premier League match, in Pune, on Monday.
India's former and current players took to social media to wish ace off-spinner Harbhajan Singh on his 40th birthday, on Friday.
Bowler Jaydev Unadkat in another player to watch out for as the three-match series in the shortest format kicks off in Johannesburg on Sunday
It will be an uphill task for the defending champs given their opponents' form and formidable line-up.
India's stand-in skipper Suresh Raina is so disappointed with his shot-selection in the last two one-dayers against the West Indies that he plans to work hard on his batting in the nets to improve himself before the Tests starting Monday.
Bhuvneshwar Kuma vindicated his captain's decision to invite Pakistan to bat first by bowling a tight line in what was an uninterrupted eight-over spell.
Soon after India had suffered a humiliating innings and six runs defeat in the opening Test at Nagpur on Tuesday, the selection panel made changes in the squad for the second Test at Kolkata that weren't too convincing. The All-India Senior Selection Committee decided to include Dinesh Karthik, S Sreesanth and Suresh Raina in the squad at the expense of Wriddhiman Saha, Abhimanyu Mithun and Sudeep Tyagi.
Images from the fifth day of the drawn second Test between India and Sri Lanka, in Colombo, on Friday.
After notching up a century on his Test debut, Suresh Raina on Thursday admitted he was nervous when he took guard but Sachin Tendukar's pep talk helped him overcome the initial jitters.
Images from the fourth day's play in the second Test between India and Sri Lanka, in Colombo, on Thursday.
Suresh Raina became the ninth Indian batsman to score a hundred in the first innings of his debut Test. He joins 11 others who scored centuries on their Test debut.
Having scored a match-winning 75-ball-100 against England in the second One-Day International on Wednesday, Suresh Raina attributed his success to Team Director Ravi Shastri's pre-match pep talk.
The thrashing that they got from the Sri Lankan batsmen notwithstanding, Suresh Raina on Monday insisted that Indian bowlers did their job well and blamed their opening-day flopshow in the second cricket Test on the dead track in Colombo.
Mukesh Ambani and Neeta Ambani hosted a massive party on Saturday for cricketers Harbhajan Singh and Rohit Sharma to celebrate their marriages.
Suresh Raina has come out in full support of Mahendra Singh Dhoni.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni led from the front with an unbeaten century to carry India to a comfortable six-wicket victory over Bangladesh in the third One-Day International of the Tri-Nation Tournament in Dhaka, on Thursday. India's captain again rose to the occasion with a composed innings of 101 from 107 deliveries, laced with nine boundaries, to help his team cruise to 297 for four in 47.3 overs and win with 15 deliveries to spare.
Shane Watson's unbeaten hundred could not prevent Australia falling to a seven-wicket defeat to India in the third and final Twenty20 match on Sunday as Suresh Raina hit a four on the last ball to complete a 3-0 clean sweep in the series.
'Did the Moneyball philosophy get redefined in the domain of the cash-rich IPL, which has become an integral part of the cricketing ecosystem?' asks Atanu Biswas.
'We knew it would get easier as the game progresses. We bat quite deep -- until 9 -- and knew we could accelerate in the last few overs'
David Warner's power-packed performance complemented by excellent death bowling from Bhuvneshwar Kumar enabled Sunrisers Hyderabad record an emphatic 10-wicket victory over Gujarat Lions, in a lopsided Indian Premier League encounter, in Rajkot, on Thursday.
Shubham Pundir top-scored with 42 to take J&K to 139 for eight in 20 overs.
Inexperience showed as India captain Suresh Raina forgot to tell on-field umpires about bowling Power Plays he intended to take against Sri Lanka in the tri-series match in Bulawayo on Sunday.
Their pride dented by the embarrassing loss to Zimbabwe in the lung-opener, a jolted India will hope to revive their campaign against Sri Lanka in the second match of the tri-series in Bulawayo.
Suresh Raina, the captain of the Indian team for the forthcoming tour of Zimbabwe, was upbeat about his team's prospects ahead of their departure on Tuesday.
With more than half the tournament over, rediff.com analyses the performances of some of the top 'lefties' in the IPL who happen to be very much on the right track.
Following are the statistical highlights of the World Twenty20 Super Eights match between India and Sri Lanka played on Tuesday.
