'I will make sure I am fully fit and bowl those outswingers'

                 On hearing of his acquittal in the IPL spot-fixing case by a trial court in Delhi, India fast bowlerSreesanth broke down with relief. He is still facing a BCCI life ban but has vowed to get back to cricket.
                 "I was just thinking when I took the World Cup catch [that clinched the 2007 World T20], I never thought, 'Why me'," he said. "But today honestly I thought, 'Why me, for two years' but maybe there is a reason. I just couldn't control my tears, now I'm really happy, I love this."Sreesanth last played official cricket during the 2013 IPL before being arrested by the Delhi Police for the alleged fulfilling of promises made to bookmakers. "I will try to start training properly as soon as possible," he said. "I wasn't allowed anything... Hopefully I can get permission from BCCI to use their facilities so that I can get fit and come into the selection process."

But the BCCI said in a release that their decisions were "independent to any criminal proceeding" and "based on its independent disciplinary action, shall remain unaltered."

               Sreesanth spoke of the pain of being sidelined for the last two years. "The worst thing to happen as a cricketer, living just behind international stadium, and you are not allowed there. Even an Under-14 kid who respects you goes to the stadium and I was not allowed. I went through a lot of things but that's past...I would love to go tomorrow and run there."
               With the charges against him dropped, Sreesanth said cricket would take centre stage in his life again. "I want to play cricket. I know I have been in the news for movies and all that, but everybody knows that I am a cricketer first. I was just waiting, I was just making sure I don't get bogged down in life, I want to play cricket."
                   He promised that his trademark delivery will soon make an appearance: "I will make sure I am fully fit and bowl those outswingers."

Bancroft and Head fifties in drawn game

                   
                 

                                      India A's bowlers found less help than they may have expected from a final-day pitch at the MA Chidambaram Stadium, as the first four-day game finished in a draw after they set Australia A 240 to win in 55 overs. A solid start, aided by some ordinary bowling, kept Australia A interested in the target, but a clump of wickets towards the end subdued their ambitions.         

cameron bencroft andtravis head made half-centuries, and added 79 for the second wicket to leave Australia A needing 125 from the last 20 overs, before falling in the space of six balls. Head nicked Abhimanyu Mithun while going hard at a fullish ball angled across him, and Bancroft pressed forward to Amit Mishra and popped a catch to silly point.  

                                Three overs later, Naman Ojha missed a stumping off Pragyan Ojha when he spun one out of the rough and past Nic Maddinson's inside edge. This was the 39th over, and it was the first time either Ojha or Mishra had bowled from the Pavilion End. Until then, India A's frontline spinners hadn't bowled in tandem at all
                   In the first innings, all nine Australian wickets taken by the bowlers had come from the other end. But the stumping chance suggested they could have bowled a spinner from the Pavilion End earlier, and Ojha gave more evidence of the help now available from there when he spun one sharply, from the line of the stumps rather than the rough, to get Peter Handscomb caught behind in the third mandatory over.
Maddinson, who had already struck Mishra and Ojha for sixes over long-on, continued playing his shots, even reverse-sweeping Ojha to the vacant point boundary. But the target was too far beyond Australia A's reach, and the players shook hands with nine mandatory overs remaining.
                    At tea, Australia A had been 81 for 1 in 23 overs, and 48 of those runs had come in boundaries. They had not needed to do anything outlandish to hit them; all the Indian bowlers had fed them the odd bad ball, particularly short ones, and only one of their 12 fours - Head lofting Ojha against the turn over mid-off - came off a risky stroke. India's only success had come when Usman Khawaja, looking to sweep Mishra from the rough, top-edged a catch to leg slip.
                    In the morning, India A added 85 runs for the loss of five wickets in the pursuit of runs that didn't come as quickly as they would have hoped, on a pitch that remained too slow for expansive shots. Against some tight Australian bowling, they only made 64 runs in the first session, at a rate of 2.29. Gurinder Sandhu continued bowling parsimonious offbreaks, using his height to extract a fair amount of bounce, and Marcus Stoinis, who had made 77 in Australia A's first innings, capped off a satisfying match with two perfect offcutters to bowl Karun Nair and Naman Ojha.
                              

India squad for Sri Lanka tou : Amit Mishra makes Test comeback after four years

               
                                              Amit Mishra, the veteran legspinner, has been recalled to the India Test squad for the first time in four years in one noticeable change to the side from the recent one-off match in Bangladesh. He has replaced fellow legspinner Karn Sharma from that squad - Sandeep Patil, the chief selector, confirmed that Karn was not fully fit yet - and the other addition to the 15-man was that of batsman KL Rahul, who returned after missing the Bangladesh tour with illness. 
                                           Mishra, 32, last played a Test in 2011 during the tour of England. He is currently playing for India A against Australia A in an unofficial Test in Chennai, from which Karnataka's Rahul was selected as the third opener for the Sri Lanka tour
                                   
                                          Along with Sharma, Patil said that fast bowler Mohammed Shami was not selected as he too had not fully recovered from his fitness problems. The rest of the squad is the same. 

India will play three Tests in Sri Lanka, in Galle (August 12-16), the P Sara Oval (August 20-24) and at the SSC (August 28-September 1). 

          

India Test squad: Virat Kohli (capt), Varun Aaron, R Ashwin, Shikhar Dhawan, Harbhajan Singh, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Wriddhiman Saha, Ishant Sharma, Amit Mishra, Rohit Sharma, M Vijay, Umesh Yadav, KL Rahul 

Australia beat England by 405 runs

         Australia ripped out England for 103 to seal a crushing 405-run win in the second Ashes Test at Lord’s  and level the series at 1-1

India vs Zim, 2nd T20: Zimbabwe stun India to level series

Zimbabwe beat India by 10 runs in their second and final Twenty20 International to draw the series 1-1 at the Harare Sports Club here on Sunday.

Opener Chamu Chibhabha's 67 guided the hosts to 145 for 7 in reply to which the visitors could manage only 135 for 9 in the allotted 20 overs.

Wicketkeeper-batsman Robin Uthappa top scored with 42 for India while leg-spinner Graeme Cremer starred for Zimbabwe, taking 3 for 18 in his four overs.

Spinners bowl India to comfortable win

                     Axar Patel (three for 17) and Harbhajan Singh turned in impressive performances with the ball to stifle Zimbabwe's chase as India recorded a comfortable 54-run win against Zimbabwe in the first of the two-match T20I series at the Harare Sports Club. The two spinners complemented admirable batting performances from Murali Vijay, Ajinkya Rahane and Robin Uthappa who scored brisk thirties helping India rack up 178 on a two-paced wicket.