Reigning champions Dhaka extended their lead at the top by 19 points at the end of the third round of the National Cricket League yesterday after they eased to an expected innings victory over Chittagong at BKSP yesterday.

Four days before the ICC World Cup, cops are monitoring bookies' activities, but a majority of them have shifted to bases outside the city, sources said.

Indian opener Rohit Sharma smashed 150 against Afghanistan in their final World Cup warm-up match Tuesday, helping the holders register their first win in Australia since they landed in November.

New Zealand hammered home their status as World Cup dark horses with an emphatic 134-run warm-up win over South Africa.

Leaders Dhaka are headed towards their third consecutive innings win in the National Cricket League yesterday. By stumps on Day Three, their opponents

Australian paceman Josh Hazlewood feels India are a very dangerous side and that it was "just a matter of time" before their batting order clicks. Australia drubbed India in the warm-up match by 106 runs on Sunday in yet another listless performance by the Men in Blue Down Under.

The one thing that's been certain through all the pre-World Cup press conferences is that the Tigers practised extreme caution while speaking on the weaker sides in their Pool A. Not once did any player or member of the team management, during a press conference, attempt to dismiss either Afghanistan or Scotland.

With two double centuries to his name, a batting average of nearly 200 and an astonishing 591 runs in three innings, Rony Talukdar is living his dream in the National Cricket League at the moment.

While one can't be completely disappointed with the way the Tigers played at the Blacktown Olympic Park yesterday, the three-wicket defeat though is bound to leave the players reeling.

When it came to initiating a global championship, the world's first organised team game was pitifully slow out of the blocks

It looked like an ordinary room -- 14 ft by 11 ft -- for an ordinary man. You won't find any modern furniture there. An old fashioned bed, a dressing table and some other unremarkable furniture would make you perceive that the man living in this room has no affection for modern luxuries.

Bangladesh captain Mashrafe Bin Mortaza has said that it will be a 'very tough' task for the Tigers to go through to the second round of the World Cup.