The big news: Dhoni will look to seal series at home ground

India’s one-day captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni will look to grab a series win against New Zealand on his home turf, Ranchi, on Wednesday. India have the upper hand after their stellar performance in the third ODI in Mohali, which saw them go up 2-1 in the five-match series.

With Virat Kohli and his bowlers in ominous form, Dhoni will hope that his openers find their rhythm in an otherwise perfectly functioning unit. Team New Zealand will hope to win the remaining two ODIs to salvage their tour after a disastrous Test series, which they lost 3-0. A win in Ranchi will make the final ODI on October 29 in Visakhapatnam the decider. But given the form Dhoni’s men are in, the Kiwis have a tough task ahead.

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  1. Pakistan beat West Indies by 133 runs win in Abu Dhabi to take an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match Test series. Leg-spinner Yasir Shah finished with figures of 6/124 and a match haul of 10/210 to help his team defend a huge target of 456. For the Windies, Jermaine Blackwood scored 95 before they were bowled out for 322.
  2. West Indies cricketer Kieron Pollard challenged the West Indies selectors for dropping him for the tri-series in Zimbabwe in November. Pollard challenged West Indies chairman of selectors Courtney Browne’s claim that he was not fully committed to his batting during their recent ODI series against Pakistan in the UAE. 
  3. Australian coach Darren Lehmann said that opener Usman Khawaja was not out of favour with selectors, despite the batsman's recent comments that he and Joe Burns had been made "scapegoats" after the Sri Lanka Test series debacle. "We have the GOAT," Lehmann told reporters, referring to Nathan Lyon's nickname as the Greatest of all Time. "And now we have the Scapegoat. I love these nicknames ... He is not on the back foot. [But] I will chat to him privately. We would rather have these things played out between selectors and players."
  4. Sri Lanka captain Angelo Mathews said that he pulled out out of the upcoming tour of Zimbabwe because an MRI scan revealed several injuries to his leg. He said the decision was taken so that he could recover for the tour of South Africa in December. "I had about one-and-a-half months to recover and I was preparing myself to be ready for the Zimbabwe tour," Mathews, who had torn his calf during the ODIs against Australia, said. "Unfortunately there has been a setback.”
  5. Former England cricketer Michael Vaughan has said that England will be blown away in next month's Test series against India if they do not improve with the bat. "If they perform like they did against Bangladesh, it'll be 5-0. England, for such a long time, are always 30 or 40 for three. If they're 30 or 40 for three against India they'll get blown away,” said Vaughan.
  6. England fast bowler James Anderson may miss the first three Tests against India as he is yet to recover from a shoulder injury. Anderson has not been included in the 16-man squad for the five-Test tour, which is unchanged from the group currently in Bangladesh.
  7. South Africa leg-spinner Imran Tahir will join County side Derbyshire as an overseas player for all formats from June 2017. Tahir, who is ranked as the world's number one Twenty20 international bowler, will join the Division Two side after the ICC Champions Trophy.
  8. Former Australia batsman Simon Katich rejected Michael Clarke's claim they reconciled after an infamous dressing room fight in 2009 in Sydney. A disagreement between the pair ended in a physical altercation after a victory. Clarke claimed that the duo had put their issues behind them, a claim Katich denies.
  9. The Board of Control for Cricket in India on Tuesday informed the Supreme Court that 12 of its member associations have kept the funds received by the cricket body as deposit and they will not utilise them until further orders from the apex court.