World Cricket News and Events Thread - 2015

New Zealand beat South Africa by 134 runs in a WC warm-up ODI in Christchurch
New Zealand 331 for 8 (Williamson 66, Abbott, 2-36) - South Africa 197 (Duminy 80, Boult 5-51)

 

Zimbabwe beat Sri Lanka by 7 wickets in a WC warm-up match in Lincoln NZ
Zimbabwe 281 for 3 (Masakadza 117*, Taylor 63, Williams 51*) - Sri Lanka 279 for 8 (Karunaratne 58, Mendis 51, Williams 3-35)

 

Ireland turned their poor run of form around as they beat Bangladesh by four wickets in a WC warm-up match in Sydney
Ireland 190 for 6 (Balbirnie 63*, Joyce 47) - Bangladesh 189 (Sarkar 45, Mooney 3-32, Sorensen 3-31)

 

West Indies beat Scotland by 3 runs in their WC warm-up match in Sydney
West Indies 313 for 9 (Ramdin 88, Simmons 55, Evans 3-63) - Scotland 310 for 9 (Coetzer 96, Berrington 66)

 

India beat Pakistan by 76 runs.
India 300/7
Pakistan 224 all out.

 

Brendon McCullum's match-saving 302 against India in Wellington has been voted the top Test batting performance of 2014 at the eighth annual ESPNcricinfo Awards, announced on Thursday. The Test bowling award went to Australia's Mitchell Johnson, for his 7 for 68 against South Africa in Centurion.
Sri Lankan players have figured prominently across award categories in 2014, including the Statsguru Awards, which recognises consistency in performances. Sri Lanka captain Angelo Mathews swept three awards - Batsman of the Year, Best Test Batsman and Most Consistent Test Batsman. It was reward for aggregating more than 1200 runs each in Tests and ODIs. Rangana Herath was named the Best Test Bowler.

 

Rohit Sharma, who broke a world record with his monumental 264 against Sri Lanka at Eden Gardens, took the award for the best ODI batting performance. The top ODI bowling performance was Lasith Malinga's 5 for 56, which helped Sri Lanka beat Pakistan in the Asia Cup final in Mirpur
In the T20 category, England's Alex Hales took the award for the best batting performance with his unbeaten 116 against Sri Lanka in the World T20 in Bangladesh. In the same tournament, Rangana Herath's 5 for 3 against New Zealand was the jury's choice for the best bowling performance.

 

New Zealand batsman Colin Munro has smashed the record for the most sixes in a first-class innings.
He hit 23 maximums in his 281 from 167 balls for Auckland against Central Districts in the Plunket Shield - New Zealand's first-class competition.
The previous record of 16 was held by four players - Andrew Symonds, Graham Napier, Jesse Ryder and Mukhtar Ali.

 

New Zealand spin bowler Daniel Vettori has retired from international cricket.
The 36-year-old's last appearance for the Black Caps came in Sunday's World Cup Final defeat in Sydney
Vettori played 113 Test matches, 295 one-day internationals and 34 Twenty20 internationals, taking 705 wickets, as well as scoring 6,989 runs.
His 362 test wickets put him joint 18th on the all time list of wicket takers (2nd highest Kiwi)
http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/player/38710.html

 

Mitchell Starc has soared to No.1 in the ICC bowlers' rankings in ODIs following a stellar World Cup campaign, where he was the leading wicket-taker and player of the tournament
AB de Villiers reclaimed the top position among ODI batsmen

 

Sadly former Australia captain and legendary cricket commentator Richie Benaud has died at the age of 84.
A pioneering leg-spin bowler, Benaud played in 63 Tests, 28 as captain, before retiring in 1964 to pursue a career in journalism and broadcasting.
His final commentary in England came during the 2005 Ashes series, but he continued to work for Channel Nine in Australia until 2013.
When I was growing up he was the voice of cricket - always opening with "Morning Everyone"

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/cricket/32246036

He was cricket on TV for so long. The best

 

Bangladesh beat Pakistan by 79 runs in the 1st ODI in Mirpur
Bangladesh 329 for 6 (Tamim 132, Mushfiqur 106, Wahab 4-59) - Pakistan 250 (Azhar 72, Rizwan 67, Haris 51, Taskin 3-42, Sunny 3-47)
This is a 3 match series

 

Bangladesh beat Pakistan by seven wickets in the 2nd ODI in Mirpur to take an unassailable 2-0 lead in the series
Bangladesh 240 for 3 (Tamim 116*, Mushfiqur 65) - Pakistan 239 for 6 (Nasim 77*, Wahab 51*, Haris 44, Shakib 2-51)

 

Bangladesh beat Pakistan by eight wickets in the 3rd ODI in Mirpur
Bangladesh 251 for 2 (Sarkar 127*, Tamim 64, Mushfiqur 49*, Junaid 2-67) - Pakistan 250 (Azhar 101, Haris 52, Shakib 2-34, Sunny 2-43, Mashrafe 2-44)
Bangladesh win series 3-0

 

Bangladesh beat Pakistan by seven wickets in the T20 in Mirpur
Bangladesh 143 for 3 (Shakib 57*, Sabbir 51*) - Pakistan 141 for 5 (Mukhtar 37, Musafizur 2-20)
Maybe England's World Cup exit at the hands of Bangladesh was not as bad as we thought it was!!

 

John Bracewell is set to be named as the new Ireland coach, succeeding Phil Simmons who left after the World Cup to take charge of the West Indies. Cricket Ireland are expected to confirm the appointment later on Wednesday.

 

Pakistan trail Bangladesh by 105 runs with 9 wickets remaining in the 1st innings at the end of the 2nd day of the 1st test in Khulna
Pakistan 227-1 (Hafeez 137*, Azhar 65*) - Bangladesh 332 (Mominul 80, Imrul 51, Wahab 3-55, Yasir 3-86)

 

James Taylor will captain England for the first time in the one-day international against Ireland on 8 May.
Nottinghamshire batsman Taylor, 25, stands in for regular captain Eoin Morgan, who is playing for Sunrisers Hyderabad in the Indian Premier League.

 

Pakistan 537 for 5 (Hafeez 224, Azhar 83, Misbah 59) lead Bangladesh 332 by 205 runs at the end of the 3rd day of the 1st test