Heavy rain drenched Auckland on Friday, dampening Australia's mood just 24 hours before their crucial World Cup showdown against New Zealand and a week after torrential downpours wiped out their clash with Bangladesh in Brisbane.

With records being broken almost every other day in the World Cup, AB de Villiers was expected to join the bandwagon soon; and so he did. With 15 overs to go South Africa were poised around the 180-mark with seven wickets in hand yesterday. At that point they would have been thinking of something around 320, but that's when de Villiers stepped into the picture. It's difficult to name one stroke that he doesn't have in his armoury. From the powerful straight drives and the cross-batted slaps to his switch-hits and his trademark pull towards fine-leg, where he dances outside the off-stump to give a base-ball like thump, they were all put into action yesterday. 162 off 66; all the West Indies could was hold their ground and applaud.

Spinners haven't been enjoying the World Cup as much this year and that's what makes Imran Tahir's five-wicket haul against the West Indies all the more special yesterday. The bowler, whose quick bowling action and dramatic follow-through often makes him seem like a pacer, ran through West Indies's crucial middle order in quick time. The Carribean openers haven't been in form lately and it has been the likes of Darren Sammy, Andre Russel and Lendl Simmons who have been saving their blushes. However, yesterday they were bedazzled by Tahir's turners.

The number of teams taking part in the 2019 World Cup hasn't been finalised, the International Cricket Council told AFP on Friday as it responded to growing criticism that its proposed cut risked damaging the sport's development.

It is no wonder why Anamul Haque is not Kumar Sangakkara. The Bangladesh opener was gifted as many chances as the Sri Lankan maestro during the two team's respective innings. However, the end result was very different. While Sangakkara made most of those early chances to score an unbeaten 76-ball 105, the Bangladesh opener huffed and puffed to 29 before being dismissed. His technique was severely tested throughout his innings, which was ended by a run-out.

West Indies batsman Darren Bravo was ruled out of the rest of the World Cup on Friday after failing to recover from a hamstring injury, the squad's players' association said.

South Africa overwhelmed West Indies by a whopping 257 runs in the 19th match of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 at Sydney Cricket Ground.

The Tigers turned up at the iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) for the first time to make a statement against the Lankan Lions yesterday.

"Like batting, bowling also needs partnerships to become successful."

At the end of Sri Lanka's tour of Bangladesh last year Mominul Haque was asked what he learnt from the series. He animatedly talked about Kumar Sangakkara's patience and the manner in which the veteran planned his innings.

In the 90,000-capacity stadium, more than half was vacant as only 30,000 fans turned up to watch the Bangladesh-Sri Lanka match of the ICC World Cup yesterday, but there was no shortage of festivity in and around the MCG -- the iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground.

On way to making an unbeaten 161, Tillakaratne Dilshan overtook Aravinda de Silva as Sri Lanka's highest individual scorer in a World Cup match.

As the final day of the National Cricket League drew to a close, Rangpur Divison were at the top with 11 points, followed by Khulna and Barisal, both at 8 points each.

Skipper AB de Villiers says the West Indies will crumble if South Africa apply the right pressure in their crunch World Cup Pool B game at the Sydney Cricket Ground on Friday.

JP Duminy is a doubtful starter for South Africa's World Cup group game against West Indies

West Indies captain Jason Holder Thursday played down Chris Gayle's absence from training on the eve of the team's crunch World Cup Pool B match with South Africa at the Sydney Cricket Ground.

South Africa face a revitalised West Indies at the Sydney Cricket Ground on Friday in a match they need to win to breathe life back into their faltering World Cup campaign.

Veteran spinner Daniel Vettori said Thursday that New Zealand would stick with their tried and trusted "casual" pre-match routine rather than let the enormity of Saturday's World Cup clash against Australia overwhelm them.

Afghanistan posted their first-ever victory at the World Cup on Thursday with a nail-biting one-wicket win over Scotland in Dunedin on Thursday.

Samiullah Shenwari insisted he'd simply "done my job" after his superb 96 set-up Afghanistan's first-ever World Cup win with a thrilling one-wicket victory over Scotland in Dunedin on Thursday.