Karnataka defeat Tamil Nadu to lift Vijay Hazare trophy

New Delhi, Jul 1: After being named as India's 'Most Valuable Player' in Test cricket in the 21st century, all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja on Wednesday said that he will always aim to give his best for the country.

His remark came as Jadeja achieved an MVP rating of 97.3 and as a result, he was also rated as the second most valuable player Test player worldwide, only second to Sri Lanka's Muttiah Muralitharan.

"Thank you Wisden India for naming me the 'Most Valuable Player'. I would like to thank all my teammates, coaches, fans, and well-wishers for your support as I aim to give my best for our country. Jai Hind," Jadeja tweeted.

Based on CricViz's market-leading analytics, each player in world cricket was awarded an 'MVP rating' by Wisden using a statistical model to rank their 'match impact' compared to their peers.

Jadeja has played in 49 Tests from 2012, managing to score 1,869 runs and has also picked up 213 wickets.

"It might come as a surprise to see Ravindra Jadeja, India's spin-bowling all-rounder, feature as India's number one. After all, he's not even always an automatic pick in their Test team. However, when he does play he is picked as a frontline bowler and has batted as high as No.6 - contributing to a very high match involvement," the official website of Wisden quoted CricViz's Freddie Wilde as saying.

"But Jadeja's position is based on more than simply volume: it's what he does when he's involved that really counts. The 31-year-old's bowling average of 24.62 is better than Shane Warne's and his batting average of 35.26 is better than Shane Watson's. His batting and bowling average differential of 10.62 runs is the second-best of any player this century to have scored more than 1,000 runs and taken 150 wickets. He is an all-rounder of the very highest quality," he added.

With the bat in hand, Jadeja has managed to score one century and 14 fifties in the longest format of the game.

He was last seen in action during India's two-Test series against New Zealand earlier this year.

He would have been in action for the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in the IPL had the tournament commenced from March 29.

However, the IPL has been postponed indefinitely due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Melbourne, May 1: Reclaiming the top spot in Test cricket has brought smiles back on their faces but Australia coach Justin Langer says beating India in their own den remains the ultimate test and their numero uno status will be put to test when they clash with the Virat Kohli-led team.

After a tumultuous transition phase post the ball-tampering scandal, Australia on Friday displaced India as number one side in Test format but Langer is aware that it does not take long for the situation to change.

"We recognise how fluid these rankings are, but at this time it was certainly nice to put a smile on our faces," Langer told Cricket Australia website. "We've got lots of work to do to get to be the team that we want to be, but hopefully over the last couple of years not only have we performed well on the field, but also off the field," Langer added.

The former left-handed opener underlined what he felt will be the ultimate test of character.

"Certainly a goal for us has been the World Test Championship ... but ultimately, we have to beat India in India and we've got to beat them when they come back (to Australia).

"You can only judge yourself as being the best if you beat the best and we've got some really tough opposition to come," Langer put his priorities in place. The team he insists needs to get better as now others will come gunning for them.

"Getting to No.1 is a great thing, but when you're No.1, you're always the hunted," Langer said. "We've been the hunters for a while, now we're the hunted and we need to get better and better."

Langer also hoped that white ball team under Aaron Finch will win the World Cup. "I know how hard it is to win World Cups ... everything has to go right. One day, I'd love to see Aaron Finch with all his mates lift that T20 World Cup above his head."

Potchefstroom, Feb 10: India's under-19 cricket team manager Anil Patel says the ICC has taken a serious view of the aggressive celebrations by Bangladesh players after their World Cup triumph and will be reviewing the footage of the final game's "last few minutes".

Some Bangladeshi players got carried away while celebrating their historic three-wicket win over India in the final on Sunday. While their captain Akbar Ali apologised for the "unfortunate incident", his Indian counterpart Priyam Garg said their reaction was "dirty".

"We don't know what actually happened," Patel told 'ESPNCricinfo' on Sunday.

"Everybody was in a shock, absolutely, but we don't know what happened exactly. The ICC officials are going to watch the footage of the last few minutes and they are going to let us know," he said.

Even when the match was on, the Bangladesh players were overly aggressive while fielding and their lead pacer Shoriful Islam sledged the Indian batsmen after every delivery.

As soon as the match ended, it became tense with Bangladeshi players rushing to the ground and displaying aggressive body language. The two teams nearly came to blows before the situation was defused by the coaching staff and on-field officials.

Patel claimed that match referee Graeme Labrooy met him and expressed regret at what transpired on the field.

"The referee came to me. He was sorry about the incident. He clarified the ICC is going to take very seriously what has happened during the match and the last session. They are going to witness the footage and they will tell us in the morning (Monday)."