Starc and Siddle deliver victory to Australia

At inalterable, Archangel Clarke must jazz thought. At lowest Australia somebody tasted victory this summer. It took until the 4th Essay of their lodging expedition, and into the final hour at that, but Uranologist Starc and Saint Siddle delivered a 137-run win for Clarke and their team-mates as Sri Lanka's tail-enders narrowly unsuccessful to sustain on for a displace at Bellerive Conic. Despite the superfine efforts of Kumar Sangakkara and Thilan Samaraweera in fact, Sri Lanka instrument walk out on Pugilism Day at the MCG 1-0 kill.

Rayudu replaces Tiwary in India T20 squad

Injured India batsman Manoj Tiwary has been replaced in the India squad for the Twenty20s against England by Ambati Rayudu. Tiwary's injury was diagnosed as a side strain. He had picked up the injury, which will keep him out of action for six weeks, during a Ranji Trophy game on Sunday, while batting in Bengal's first innings against Saurashtra.

Rayudu, who has played for Baroda in the Ranji Trophy since the 2010-11 season, has had a prolific run this year, with scores of 64, 85, 10, 54, 1, 131 and 58 in his previous five games. A bit-hitting middle-order batsman, Rayudu did not have too much success on his last Twenty20 assignment: October's Champions League T20, where he played for Mumbai Indians. But in IPL 2012, he was Mumbai Indians second-highest scorer behind Rohit Sharma, with 333 runs from 15 innings at a strike-rate of 132.14. He is yet to debut for India across formats.

For Tiwary, who captains Bengal in the Ranji Trophy, this is a second setback in quick succession - he had suffered a wrist problem earlier in the season. When fit, he had shown some good form, scoring 191 against Gujarat, and also making 93 against England for the Board President's XI last month.

India play two Twenty20s against England, on December 20 and 22, and that is followed up by limited-overs series' against Pakistan running into the first week of January. Later in January, England return for a one-day series.

McCullum worried for Taylor and team

Brendon McCullum, who took over as New Zealand captain under controversial circumstances after Ross Taylor refused an offer to remain as the leader of the Test team in a split-captaincy scenario, has said he is concerned for his predecessor as well as the team ahead of a tough tour of South Africa. Taylor has asked for a break and will not be travelling to South Africa.

"I'm more concerned now with how the team is handling the situation and where we go from here - how we try and galvanise the unit, rather than my own individual accolade of picking up the captaincy," McCullum told reporters at a press conference in Lincoln. "I'm obviously worried for Ross and how he is dealing with things at the moment, and obviously how we try and ensure that we pull together this team inside a very short space of time for what is going to be an incredibly tough tour."

Sehwag, Gambhir off to solid start

Finally, India owned a session in the Eden Gardens Test, but they still had some way to go to safety. They got rid of the last four England wickets in just 4.3 overs, limiting the visitors' innings to 523, and their openers then saw them through to lunch without damage. They didn't just seem them through, Virender Sehwag, dropped early in the piece by Graeme Swann, was aggressive towards the break. With five sessions to go, India needed 121 to make England bat again.

India tried three bowlers on the day, and all of them got wickets with their second balls. Pragyan Ojha got Swann to drive in the first over, and Virender Sehwag swallowed an easy catch at first slip. Matt Prior edged Zaheer Khan when cutting in the second over. James Anderson played two lovely shots off Zaheer before R Ashwin made him edge one in the fifth over. Monty Panesar got a rough one next ball, given lbw off an inside edge.