2015 in pictures
AB mania, Kiwi magic, and amazing Bangladesh
Dale Steyn and Simon Harmer took seven wickets each, and AB de Villiers made 148 in South Africa's eight-wicket win over West Indies in Cape Town. South Africa won the three-Test series 2-0 and retained their No. 1 status.•AFP
Indian opener KL Rahul scored his maiden Test century in Sydney in a match that ended as a tense draw with India seven down on a wearing pitch. Three other batsmen made hundreds in the game - David Warner, Steven Smith and Virat Kohli. Australia won the four-match series 2-0.•Getty Images
If it's a breathtaking batting feat, it must be from AB de Villiers. He broke the record for the fastest ODI century, making one in 31 balls, beating Corey Anderson's 36-ball effort from a year before, in South Africa's total of 439 against West Indies in Johannesburg. De Villiers' final score was 149 off… 44 balls. •Gallo Images
It was evident cricket is a batsman's game when Chris Gayle made the first (but not only) double-hundred of this World Cup. His double, the fifth of the format and his first 100-plus score in 19 months, came against Zimbabwe in a 73-run win in Canberra.•ICC
England were knocked out of the World Cup after losing to an accomplished Bangladesh in Adelaide. Middle-order batsman Mahmudullah scored a hundred and fast bowler Rubel Hossain took four wickets in the 15-run win.•Saeed Khan/AFP
Former Australian captain and legendary commentator - often called the voice of cricket - Richie Benaud died in Sydney at the age of 84 after a long battle with skin cancer.•Getty Images
Mumbai Indians won their second IPL title, beating Chennai Super Kings in the final in Kolkata. Lendl Simmons and Rohit Sharma made half-centuries and Lasith Malinga took 3 for 25 in the 41-run win.•BCCI
Adam Voges made a century on Test debut in Dominica and Steven Smith made 199 in Jamaica to give Australia a 2-0 win in West Indies.•Getty Images
Bangladesh went on to make it four home series wins in a row when they beat South Africa 2-1. Opener Soumya Sarkar made 88 and 90 in the two ODI wins, in Mirpur and Chittagong. The two Tests were rain-affected draws.•AFP
Australia women took the multi-points Ashes series 10-6, winning the ODIs 2-1, the Test by 161 runs, and losing the T20 series 1-2. Allrounder Jess Jonassen made 99 and 54 on debut and fast bowler Ellyse Perry took 6 for 32 in the big Test win in Canterbury.•Getty Images
Sachin Tendulkar and Shane Warne led two T20 sides featuring the likes of Wasim Akram, Muttiah Muraliatharan, Curtly Ambrose, Shoaib Akhtar, Jacques Kallis and Ricky Ponting in a three-match T20 All-Stars Series in USA. The series, meant to bring cricket to America, was largely attended by expats. Warne's team won all three matches.•Rob Tringali/ESPN
The first day-night Test, played in Adelaide, was a success, though it lasted only three days. It was a low-scoring dogfight and by "dinner" on day three, Australia needed 76 runs with seven wickets in hand. Trent Boult took three quick wickets, but Nos. 8 and 9, Peter Siddle and Mitchell Starc completed the tense chase. Australia won the series 2-0. •Getty Images
A young Sri Lanka side showed some fight on a green Hamilton pitch, gaining a small first-innings lead, but then Tim Southee, Doug Bracewell and Neil Wagner blew them away: taking 10 wickets for 62 runs in 13.5 overs. Kane Williamson's second-innings century gave him the New Zealand record for most runs in a calendar year. New Zealand won the series 2-0.•Getty Images
Despite conceding a 135-run first-innings lead in Wellington, New Zealand beat Sri Lanka by a huge margin, thanks to an unbeaten world-record stand of 365 for the sixth wicket between Kane Williamson and BJ Watling, which rendered Kumar Sangakkara's 11th Test double-century redundant. •Getty Images
Luke Ronchi (170 not out) and Grant Elliott (104 not out) took New Zealand from 93 for 5 to 360 for 5 with a record-shattering 267-run sixth-wicket stand against Sri Lanka in an ODI in Dunedin. Sri Lanka could manage only 252 in reply, and went on to lose the one-day series 4-2.•Getty Images
On the opening day of the World Cup, Australia subjected England to their second- biggest World Cup loss in terms of runs. Aaron Finch made 135 and Mitchell Marsh took five wickets in the 111-run win at the MCG.•ICC
After making the fastest fifty and hundred in ODIs against West Indies, de Villiers set the record for the fastest ODI 150 against the same team, this time in a World Cup match in which West Indies were bowled out for 151, 11 runs short of de Villiers' individual unbeaten score of 162 off 66 balls. •Getty Images
South Africa were the losing side in yet another World Cup semi-final epic after Grant Elliott played the innings of a lifetime in their chase of 298 in 43 overs in Auckland. New Zealand needed 12 off the last over and a six from Elliott off the penultimate ball sealed the win. Steven Smith's century overwhelmed India in the other semi-final, in Sydney.•ICC
West Indies bounced back from conceding a 68-run lead and dismissed England for 123 in the second innings of the Bridgetown Test, which they went on to win - their first victory over a top-eight side in four years. The three-Test series was drawn 1-1. In the first match, in Antigua, James Anderson overtook Ian Botham's record as the leading Test wicket-taker for England.•Getty Images
England and New Zealand drew their two-Test series 1-1, each side winning by a big margin. England won the first Test at Lord's despite conceding a big first-innings lead, thanks to centuries from Alastair Cook and Ben Stokes, who also took three wickets in the second innings. At Headingley, both sides made 350 first up, after which BJ Watling's century and partnerships with Brendon McCullum and the lower order put New Zealand on course for an emphatic win, their first in England this century. •Getty Images
Younis Khan's unbeaten 171 in Pallekele led Pakistan to their highest successful chase - 377 (the sixth highest in all Test cricket). Pakistan won by seven wickets and took the series 2-1. In the ten-wicket win in Galle, legspinner Yasir Shah took a career-best 7 for 76.•AFP
After the battering they received in Australia by Mitch Johnson and Co, England regained the Ashes at home, 3-2. James Anderson and Steven Finn took six-fors in an eight-wicket win at Edgbaston, and Stuart Broad took 8 for 15 to bowl out Australia for 60 at Trent Bridge. Steven Smith made a double-hundred at Lord's and a century at The Oval - the matches Australia won. •Getty Images
BCCI president and legendary administrator Jagmohan Dalmiya, who played a major role in turning India into a financial powerhouse in the game, died at the age of 75 after a heart attack. Shashank Manohar, who had served as BCCI president previously, replaced Dalmiya at the helm of Indian cricket.•AFP
West Indies managed to bowl Sri Lanka out for 200 and 206 in the Colombo Test, with part-timer Kraigg Brathwaite taking a six-for, but their batting, as always, failed them. Their only win of the tour was in the final T20, where Dwayne Bravo made a run-a-ball 31 and took 4 for 28.•AFP
Chris Cairns was found not guilty of perjury and perverting the course of justice in the course of his successful 2012 libel action against Lalit Modi, the founder of the IPL, at the High Court in London, in a trial that saw Lou Vincent, Brendon McCullum and Ricky Ponting give testimony.•Getty Images
Australia went into the World Cup on a high, going undefeated in the tri-series, which featured India and England. In the final, Glenn Maxwell made 95 off 98 balls and took four wickets to beat England by 112 runs.•Getty Images
Ireland made the case for Associate presence in global tournaments by comfortably chasing West Indies' 304 with more than four overs to spare in Nelson. They first reduced West Indies to 87 for 5, and when their turn came to bat, their first two wickets made more than half the required runs inside the first 30 overs.•Getty Images
The first thriller of the World Cup was a low scorer in Auckland between the two hosts. Despite getting a fine start from Brendon McCullum's 24-ball fifty, New Zealand struggled in the chase, put under pressure by Mitchell Starc, who took 6 for 28, and it was only Kane Williamson's calm presence - he sealed the chase with a six - that gave New Zealand a one-wicket win.•AFP
New Zealand couldn't sustain their incredible run through the World Cup in the final and were bowled out for 183. Australian captain Michael Clarke and his successor, Steven Smith, made half-centuries in the easy chase that gave Australia their fifth 50-over world title. •Robert Cianflone/Getty Images
Bangladesh whitewashed Pakistan 3-0 in an ODI series at home. Tamim Iqbal made two hundreds and Mushfiqur Rahim and Soumya Sarkar one each in the emphatic wins. It was Bangladesh's first series victory over Pakistan. Azhar Ali's maiden double-hundred, along with centuries from Younis Khan and Asad Shafiq, helped Pakistan win the Mirpur Test by 328 runs and the two-Test series 1-0.•AFP
Pakistan hosted their first international series at home in six years when Zimbabwe visited for two T20s and three ODIs - all in Lahore. Pakistan won both the ODI and T20 series 2-0.•Associated Press
Bangladesh made up for their World Cup quarter-final loss to India by beating them 2-1 in the home ODI series. Fast bowler Mustafizur Rahman took 5 for 52 and 6 for 43 in the wins. The Test between the two teams in Fatullah was drawn.•AFP
R Ashwin took 21 wickets in India's first Test series win in Sri Lanka in 22 years. India lost the first Test in Galle but they bounced back to comprehensively win the next two Tests, in Colombo. In the second match - Kumar Sangakkara's final Test - KL Rahul and Ajinkya Rahane made hundreds and Ashwin and Amit Mishra took 14 wickets between them. In the third, Chesteshwar Pujara carried his bat for 145 and Ishant Sharma combined with Ashwin to bowl Sri Lanka out for 201 and 268.•AFP
Though they avoided a whitewash this time round, England lost 2-0 to Pakistan in the UAE. Legspinner Yasir Shah took 15 wickets in Dubai and Sharjah and Shoaib Malik made a double-hundred in the drawn Test in Abu Dhabi on his comeback. England captain Alastair Cook also scored a double in Abu Dhabi, batting for nearly 14 hours.•Gareth Copley/Getty Images
South Africa's impressive away record came to an end when they lost 3-0 in India. In Mohali, they were bowled out by spinners R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja while chasing 218. In Nagpur, on a pitch later declared "poor" by the ICC, they managed 79 and 185; in Delhi, 121 and 143, scoring 0.99 runs per over in the second innings as their middle-order batsmen tried to block to an impossible draw. Ashwin finished the series with 31 wickets and Jadeja with 23.•BCCI
West Indies collapsed to an innings defeat against Australia in Hobart. Adam Voges made a double-hundred and Shaun Marsh 182. Kraigg Brathwaite's second-innings 94 was 45 runs more than the rest of his West Indian team-mates could manage together.•Getty Images