The big story: David Warner clinches top spot, Kohli slips

David Warner’s brilliant run of form saw him jump two places in the International Cricket Council’s One-Day International rankings to clinch pole position. This also meant that South African batting maestro AB de Villiers was pushed to the second spot, and India’s Virat Kohli, third.

In the last 11 ODIs that he has played, the hard-hitting Warner has plundered six centuries. In the recently concluded five-match series against Pakistan, which Australia won 4-1, Warner amassed 367 runs. Kohli didn’t do badly either in the recently concluded three-match ODI series against England, scoring a hundred and a fifty.

Among other Indian batsmen, MS Dhoni moved up by a spot to get to 13th in the table while Rohit Sharma, who is recovering from a lengthy injury layoff, dropped three places to go 13th. Kedar Jadhav’s rich haul of 232 runs in three games against Eoin Morgan’s side saw him leapfrog 57 spots to get to the 47th in the table.

Other top stories

Cricket

  • Following a string of bad results in recent times, England Test skipper Alastair Cook is ready to step down, reportedThe Independent. Cook, who has held the post for a little more than four years, is scheduled to discuss his future with England’s director of cricket and his predecessor, Andrew Strauss, on Friday.
  • Pakistan ODI skipper Azhar Ali has been penalised with a one-match suspension for slow over rate during the fifth match against Australia in Adelaide on Thursday. Ali was also charged 40% of his match fee. Pakistan play their next ODI against West Indies in April.  
  • South African pacer Lungi Ngidi, who impressed in his debut series in the Twenty20 Internationals against Sri Lanka, has been ruled out of the five-match ODI series because of an abdominal injury.
  • Australia’s franchise-based cricketing event Big Bash League could be expanded in the 2017-’18 season with each side set to play one extra home game. This means that all the teams would play one extra home game before the semi-finals and the final.
  • Former Australian captain Ricky Ponting predicted that Steve Smith’s side would struggle during its India tour in the summer. The Australians were drubbed 0-4 in the Test series in 2013. “I think they’ll struggle. It’s become harder and harder for visiting teams to go to India. They probably make wickets to suit them more than ever before,” Ponting said.   

Football

  • Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger has admitted that he has asked his midfielder Granit Xhaka “to stop tackling” in the wake of the Swiss getting his second red card after moving to the Emirates. “It is more the way he tackles that is not convincing. He doesn’t master the technique,” Wenger was quoted as saying. Xhaka was also involved in a racism row at London’s Heathrow airport recently.
  • Dutch winger Memphis Depay, who recently switched Manchester United for French club Olympique Lyon, insisted that he didn’t have a problem with Red Devils boss Jose Mourinho, calling him a “great coach and a great person”.
  • After losing 1-2 in the second leg against Hull City at the KCOM stadium, Mourinho stated that his side “didn’t lose” and that he “only saw two goals”, referring to the controversial penalty which gave the hosts the lead.
  • Reigning English Premier League champions Leicester City manager Claudio Ranieri revealed that club chairman Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha is “unhappy” with the team’s form. The Foxes currently lie five points outside the relegation zone.

Tennis

  • American Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Czech Republic’s Lucie Safarova came out trumps in a tense final to beat Czech Andrea Hlavackova and China’s Peng Shuai 6-7 (3), 6-3, 6-3 to lift the Australian Open women’s doubles title.   
  • India’s Sania Mirza and her Croatian partner Ivan Dodig marched into the final of the Australian Open mixed doubles on Friday. The Indo-Croat pair beat Australians Samantha Stosur and Samuel Groth 6-4, 2-6, 10-5 in the semi-final.  

Formula One

  • Recently-retired Formula One driver Mark Webber was conferred with his country’s highest national awards, Officer of the Order of Australia, on Thursday.