Steyn rest to next matches

South Africa decided to give the rest to fast bowler Dale Steyn for remaining matches of ODI series against West Indies. Hashim Amla and Ab dE Villiers also take rest in 4th & 5th ODI repectively.

South Africa already secured the five matches series with 3-0.

Practice matches before Worldcup

ICC announced the schedule and venues of warm up matches before worldcup, will be played from February 8 to February 13.

8 February: Australia v India, 2pm, Adelaide Oval.
9 February: South Africa v Sri Lanka, 11am, Hagley Oval.
9 February: New Zealand v Zimbabwe, 11am Lincoln Oval.
9 February: England v West Indies, 2.30pm Sydney Cricket Ground.
9 February: Pakistan v Bangladesh, 2.30pm Blacktown.
10 February: India v Afghanistan, 2pm, Adelaide Oval.
10 February: Ireland v Scotland, 2.30pm, Blacktown.
11 February: South Africa v New Zealand, 11am, Hagley Oval.
11 February: Sri Lanka v Zimbabwe, 11am, Lincoln Oval.
11 February: Australia v United Arab Emirates, 2.30pm, MCG.
11 February: England v Pakistan, 2.30pm, SCG.
12 February: West Indies v Scotland, 9.30am, SCG.
12 February: Bangladesh v Ireland, 9.30am, Blacktown.
13 February: Afghanistan v United Arab Emirates, 10am, Junction Oval.

Hafeez going to retest

Pakistan are seeking to have the bowling action of allrounder Mohammad Hafeez cleared by the International Cricket Council in time for next month's ICC Cricket World Cup.

According to sources, the Pakistan Cricket Board has officially requested the ICC re-test Hafeez's action in the first week of February in the hope that he will be cleared for the tournament, which starts on February 14.

The off-spinner was suspended in December when it was determined that his action exceeded the 15-degree limit set by the ICC. He had been reported during Pakistan's Test series against New Zealand in November and then failed an official test at an ICC-accredited biomechanics testing laboratory in Loughborough, England.

Hafeez has taken 122 wickets in 153 ODIs and, despite the ban, is ranked No.11 in the world ODI bowling rankings and 15th in Twenty20s.

Hafeez was this month included in Pakistan's 15-man squad for the World Cup and will likely be retained in the squad as a batsman even if he is not permitted to bowl.

Allrounder out for next match

Shane Watson has been out of Friday's ODI Tri-Series match against England with a tight right hamstring. Allrounder Moises Henriques has been called into the squad

National Selection Panel chairman Rod Marsh said: "Moises is one of our leading all-rounders, he has international experience, and in Shane Watson's enforced absence it made perfect sense to draft him in for this match

Watson had left Australia's net session in Hobart on Thursday after bowling but he did not bat.

He later returned to watch the remainder of the training run from the back on the practice area.

George Bailey (suspension) and David Warner (hamstring soreness) will also miss tomorrow's clash against England, with Shaun Marsh to open alongside Aaron Finch, and Cameron White to bat in the middle order.

Left-arm spinner Xavier Doherty could return to the side for his home ODI after missing Australia's last-start win over India in Melbourne on Sunday.

Australia squad: Aaron Finch, Shaun Marsh, Cameron White, Steve Smith, Moises Henriques, Glenn Maxwell, Brad Haddin, James Faulkner, Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins, Xavier Doherty, Gurinder Sandhu.

Worldcup 2015 Squads

Here is the final squads for ICC Cricket Worldcup 2015

Australia: Michael Clarke (c), George Bailey (v), Pat Cummins, Xavier Doherty, James Faulkner, Aaron Finch, Brad Haddin, Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell Johnson, Mitchell Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Steve smith, Mitchell Starc, David Warner, Shane Watson.


West Indies: Jason Holder (captain), Marlon Samuels (vice-captain), Sulieman Benn, Darren Bravo, Jonathan Carter, Sheldon Cottrell, Christopher Gayle, Sunil Narine, Denesh Ramdin, Kemar Roach, Andre Russell, Darren Sammy, Lendl Simmons, Dwayne Smith, Jerome Taylor.


New Zealand: Brendon McCullum, Corey Anderson, Trent Boult, Grant Elliott, Martin Guptill, Tom Latham, Mitchell McClenaghan, Nathan McCullum, Kyle Mills, Adam Milne, Luke Ronchi, Tim Southee, Ross Taylor, Dan Vettori, Kane Williamson.


Sri Lanka: Angelo Mathews (capt), Tillakaratne Dilshan, Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardene, Lahiru Thirimanne, Dinesh Chandimal, Dimuth Karunaratne, Jeevan Mendis, Thisara Perera, Suranga Lakmal, Lasith Malinga, Dhammika Prasad, Nuwan Kulasekara, Rangana Herath, Sachithra Senanayake.


South Africa: AB de Villiers (captain), Hashim Amla (vice-captain), Kyle Abbott, Farhaan Behardien, Quinton de Kock (wkt), JP Duminy, Faf du Plessis, Imran Tahir, David Miller, Morne Morkel, Wayne Parnell, Aaron Phangiso, Vernon Philander, Rilee Rossouw, Dale Steyn


PAKISTAN: Misbah-ul Haq (captain), Ahmed Shehzad, Mohammad Hafeez, Sarfraz Ahmed, Younis Khan, Haris Sohail, Umar Akmal, Sohaib Maqsood, Shahid Afridi, Yasir Shah, Mohammad Irfan, Junaid Khan, Ehsan Adil, Sohail Khan, Wahab Riaz.


England: Eoin Morgan (captain), Moeen Ali, James Anderson, Gary Ballance, Ian Bell, Ravi Bopara, Stuart Broad, Jos Buttler, Steven Finn, Alex Hales, Chris Jordan, Joe Root, James Taylor, James Tredwell, Chris Woakes.


India: MS Dhoni (Captain), Virat Kohli (V Captain), Ajinkya Rahane, Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, Stuart Binny, Suresh Raina, Ravindra Jadeja, Ambati Rayudu, Axar Patel, R Ashwin, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Md. Shami, Umesh Yadav, Ishant Sharma.


Bangladesh: Mashrafe Mortaza (captain), Shakib Al Hasan (vice-captain), Tamim Iqbal, Anamul Haque, Mominul Haque, Mahmudullah Riyad, Mushfiqur Rahim, Nasir Hossain, Taijul Islam, Taskin Ahmed, Al-Amin Hossain, Rubel Hossain, Soumya Sarkar, Sabbir Rahman, Arafat Sunny.


Afghanistan: Mohammad Nabi (captain), Nawroz Mangal, Asghar Stanikzai, Samiullah Shenwari, Afsar Zazai, Najibullah Zadran, Nasir Jamal, Mirwais Ashraf, Gulbadin Naib, Hamid Hassan, Shapoor Zadran, Dawlat Zadran, Aftab Alam, Javed Ahmadi, Usman Ghani.


Ireland: William Porterfield (captain), Andrew Balbirnie, Peter Chase, Alex Cusack, George Dockrell, Ed Joyce, Andrew McBrine, John Mooney, Max Sorensen, Kevin O’Brien, Niall O’Brien, Paul Stirling, Stuart Thompson, Gary Wilson, Craig Young.


UAE: Mohammed Tauqir (capt), Khurram Khan, Swapnil Patil, Saqlain Haider, Amjad Javed, Shaiman Anwar, Amjad Ali, Nasir Aziz, Rohan Mustafa, Manjula Guruge, Andri Berenger, Fahad Al Hashmi, Muhammad Naveed, Kamran Shahzad, Krishna Karate.


Zimbabwe: Elton Chigumbura (capt), Sikandar Raza, Regis Chakabva, Tendai Chatara, Chamu Chibhabha, Craig Ervine, Tafadzwa Kamungozi, Hamilton Masakadza, Stuart Matsikenyeri, Solomon Mire, Tawanda Mupariwa, Tinashe Panyangara, Brendan Taylor, Prosper Utseya, Sean Williams


Scotland: Preston Mommsen (captain), Kyle Coetzer, Richie Berrington, Frederick Coleman, Matthew Cross, Joshua Davey, Alasdair Evans, Hamish Gardiner, Majid Haq, Michael Leask, Matt Machan, Calum MacLeod, Safyaan Sharif, Robert Taylor, Iain Wardlaw

South Africa win the series

The West Indies have suffered a humiliating nine-wicket defeat having collapsed to 122 all out as South Africa clinched their five-match one-day series after just three games.

Marlon Samuels made 26 but no other West Indian batsmen reached 20 in a dismal performance on a good pitch at Buffalo Park on Wednesday.

Man of the match Vernon Philander took two wickets inside the first two overs and finished with 3-27, while leg-spinner Imran Tahir claimed a career-best 4-28.

South Africa needed just 24.4 overs to complete the series-clinching win.

Hashim Amla's unbeaten 61 not out took his runs tally for the series to 280 with just one dismissal, while Faf du Plessis made 51 not out.

It was another crushing defeat for the West Indies following a one-sided encounter in the second match in Johannesburg last Sunday when South Africa made 2-439 on the way to winning by 148 runs.

With the series secured, De Villiers said the remaining members of the World Cup squad would get an opportunity to play in the two remaining matches.

Wasim Akram shows believe on Starc

Australia’s lethal left-arm swing bowler Mitchell Starc is “almost there” amongst the world’s best fast bowlers according to Pakistan champion bowler Wasim Akram.

Akram spoke at the unveiling of the new Ricky Ponting and David Boon stands at Blundstone Arena today where he applauded the efforts of Starc and fellow southpaw Mitchell Johnson for their progression and performance with the swinging ball.

“I am very impressed with both of them,” Akram said in Hobart.

“Mitchell Johnson - unbelievable last couple of years and Starc is also looking good, he’s improving ever game.

“The more he plays the better he’ll become. He’s got the pace, he’s got the swing, he’s tall, he’s strong, and he’s the using the crease as well, bowling over the wicket, around the wicket.

“So he’s getting there. The other day he got wickets against India and to me it looks like he’s there now, he’s getting there.

“Bit more hard work and he’ll be up there.”

The 104-Test veteran first spoke to Starc during the 2012-13 New Year’s Test against India, alerting the Australian to the importance of a supple wrist when releasing the ball.

Starc’s ability to conventionally swing the new ball and reverse the old one has reaped 10 wickets at 8.5 runs apiece in Australia’s two Carlton Mid ODI Tri-Series matches.

The 24-year-old was devastating up front in game one against England, trapping Ian Bell and James Taylor with two perfectly pitched inswingers to leave the tourists in tatters at 2-0 after three balls.

Akram also credits Johnson’s re-discovery of that elusive swing for his return to the summit as one of the world most feared bowlers.

Johnson claimed 37 Ashes wickets last summer in a year that saw him regain the fearsome pace and accuracy that had him crowned the ICC Player of the Year.

“Mitchell Starc’s natural swing is inswing. Johnson has learned (how to swing the ball) in the last couple of years, that’s why he’s been so consistent and so lethal because of his pace.

“145-150(kph) clocking every time. It shows the fitness of the man as well.”

Probable Aussies in IPL 2015

Australians in IPL8:

Retained players by IPL teams: Nathan Coulter-Nile (Delhi), George Bailey, Glenn Maxwell, Mitchell Johnson, Shaun Marsh (KXIP), Chris Lynn, Pat Cummins (KKR), Josh Hazlewood (Mumbai), Shane Watson, Ben Cutting, James Faulkner, Kane Richardson, Steve Smith (Rajasthan), Mitchell Starc, Nic Maddinson (RCB), David Warner, Moises Henriques (Hyderabad).

Released players by IPL teams: Ben Hilfenhaus, John Hastings, David Hussey (CSK), Michael Hussey, Ben Dunk (Mumbai), Brad Hodge (Rajasthan), Aaron Finch (Hyderabad).

Pakistan on road to Worldcup

Pakistan cricket team take off from Lahore to New Zealand for two one day internationals before ICC CWC 2015. 1st ODI scheduled on 31st Jan and second will be on 3rd Feb. Pakistan's fast bowler Junad Khan did not go with team due to injury.

Bell makes history

35 – Number of fifty-plus scores for Ian Bell in One Day Internationals, the most by a batsman from England. Bell has three centuries and 32 fifties.

He trumped Kevin Pietersen, who had 34 fifty-plus scores (nine hundreds and 25 half-centuries). The 32-year-old Bell is also now just five runs away from becoming only the second English batsman -  after Paul Collingwood – to make 5,000 ODI runs.