Year in pictures
2018 in pictures
Steven Smith started the year by joining Garry Sobers as the second fastest batsman to 6000 Test runs. Australia went on to win the Ashes 4-0.
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India won the final Test of the series - their first win in South Africa since Durban in 2010-11 - on a punishing pitch, but lost the series 2-1 to the hosts, who seemed determined to avenge their series loss in India three years before.•BCCI
India won their first bilateral series in South Africa across formats, carried in large part by Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav, who took 33 of the 53 South African wickets to fall in five matches.•BCCI
In Vadodara in March, Alyssa Healy's maiden international hundred took Australia to their highest total, 332 for 7, against India, and a 3-0 win in the ODI series.•Getty Images
South Africa fast bowler Morne Morkel called time on his career at the end of the Test series against Australia. Incidentally, his career-best match performance came in the controversial Newlands Test, where he took 9 for 110.•AFP
New Zealand women amassed 491 for 4 - the highest total in all ODI cricket - against Ireland in Dublin in June. Suzie Bates scored a quickfire 151 off 94 balls, and No. 3 batsman Maddy Green made 121 off 77 balls to seal the win.•Sportsfile/Sebdaly
Australia's ignominy was complete with a 5-0 ODI loss against England in their first international tour after the ball-tampering saga. England also rubbed salt into their wounds by making the highest total in men's ODIs - 481 for 6 - in the fourth match, at Trent Bridge, and crushing Australia by 242 runs, also their largest margin of defeat. •Getty Images
Fakhar Zaman became Pakistan's first double-centurion, securing them a 244-run win over Zimbabwe with his unbeaten 210. His 304-run stand with Imam-ul-Haq took Pakistan to their biggest ODI total - 399. •Getty Images
The India-England Test series saw another record broken - James Anderson overtook Glenn McGrath as the most prolific fast bowler in Test history with 564 wickets. Almost 12 years earlier McGrath had claimed his 563rd wicket with his very last ball in Test cricket. The victim? Anderson.•Getty Images
Australia's women lifted the World T20 title for the fourth time. Their record of never having lost to England in a women's cup final is now safe until the next world event, in 2020. •ICC/Getty
Zimbabwe stormed to their first away win in 17 years, in Bangladesh's newest Test venue, Sylhet, but Bangladesh levelled the series with a win in the second Test, powered by Mehidy Hasan's 5 for 38.•Getty Images
Dale Steyn finally broke Shaun Pollock's record of 421 dismissals, becoming South Africa's highest wicket-taker, in the Boxing Day Test against Pakistan. Steyn was five wickets away from Pollock's record when he suffered a shoulder injury during South Africa's tour of Australia in 2016 and has been clawing his way back to full fitness ever since. •Getty Images
The Bangladesh Tri-Nation Series sprung a few surprises, like Zimbabwe's 12-run win over Sri Lanka in the second match. But the final between Bangladesh and Sri Lanka belonged to debutant Shehan Madushanka, whose hat-trick sealed the match, and the series, for Sri Lanka.•Associated Press
Pakistan's year began with a 5-0 ODI loss in New Zealand. It was only New Zealand's second whitewash in a five-match series.•Getty Images
Livewire rivalries, snake-themed dance-offs, heated arguments, destroyed dressing rooms - the tri-nation Nidahas Trophy had it all. The Bangladesh-Sri Lanka rivalry boiled over after umpiring errors turned a match in the former's favour, which meant a huge home crowd showed up at Colombo to support India in the final against Bangladesh. India won the trophy with a stunning six by Dinesh Karthik off the last ball.•NurPhoto/Getty Images
South Africa's 3-1 victory over Australia in the most vituperative series of the year was almost forgotten in the biggest scandal of recent times - Sandpapergate. Australian opener Cameron Bancroft was caught on camera working on the ball with a mystery object, later found to be sandpaper tucked away in his pants.•Gallo Images/Stringer
Despite the first day of their maiden Test being washed out, Ireland looked like they might give Pakistan a good scare, with Kevin O'Brien posting a rearguard maiden Test hundred after the follow-on was enforced. But Pakistan fought back from a precarious 14 for 3 to chase 160 and deny Ireland what would have been an epic win.•Getty Images
Less than a week after New Zealand's record-breaking score, their 17-year-old opener, Amelia Kerr, broke the record for the highest score in women's ODIs - hitting 31 fours in an unbeaten 232 off 145 balls - in another massive win over Ireland. Not that that was enough for Kerr, who also took a five-for in the chase.•Getty Images
Bangladesh Women beat six-time champions India to claim their maiden T20 Asia Cup title in a nail-biter final in Kuala Lumpur. Despite India's modest total of 112 for 9, it came down to the very last ball, which Jahanara Alam dispatched to deep midwicket to claim the last two runs.•ACC
Close to a year after Ben Stokes was first arrested for a punch-up outside a Bristol bar, he was found not guilty of affray by the Bristol Crown Court. Stokes had missed the Ashes and the incident had also cost him his England vice-captaincy. He was added to the England squad after his acquittal, for the third Test against India.•AFP
Australia brought grit and fortitude to their Test series against Pakistan and nothing personified it more than Usman Khawaja's 522-minute 141, which forced a draw in the first Test. But it couldn't save them the series: Mohammad Abbas' ten-for scythed through Australia in the second match, condemning them to their fourth-worst defeat in history.•Getty Images
In July, Bangladesh trotted over to the West Indies for a two-Test series, where the hosts packed them off 2-0 for their first win at home since 2014. Bangladesh returned the favour when West Indies stopped by in November, thrashing them 2-0 and chalking up their first innings win in Tests.•AFP
Thirty-two-year-old legspinner Yasir Shah broke an 82-year-old record when he became the fastest bowler to 200 Test wickets. Yasir reached the milestone in his 33rd Test, beating the record set by Australian legspinner Clarrie Grimmett, who took 36 matches.•Getty Images
When Sri Lanka were knocked out of the Asia Cup, captain Angelo Mathews was booted out of the ODI squad to England, ostensibly on fitness grounds, by coach Chandika Hathurusingha. After a magnificent rearguard hundred in Wellington that helped Sri Lanka draw the Test, Mathews performed ten push-ups, then flexed his biceps in the direction of the dressing room. •Getty Images
India opener Manjot Kalra smashed an unbeaten 101 off 102 balls to steer a chase of 217 against Australia and give India an unprecedented fourth Under-19 World Cup title.•AFP
In the group stages of the ICC World Cup Qualifier, it looked like Afghanistan wouldn't make it to their second World Cup. But in a comeback enabled by showman Mohammad Shahzad's 84, the team thumped fellow qualifiers West Indies by seven wickets to take the trophy. •ICC/Getty Images
Australia captain Steven Smith admitted that the team's "leadership group" had planned to tamper with the ball. A subsequent CA investigation saw 12-month bans slapped on Smith and vice-captain David Warner, and a nine-month ban for Bancroft.•Getty Images
They may have been mocked as "dad's army" for all the senior players in the squad - MS Dhoni, Shane Watson, Harbhajan Singh and Imran Tahir are all above 35 - but the joke was on the naysayers when CSK came back from a two-year ban to take home the IPL trophy for the third time.•BCCI
Scotland bounced back from not making it to the World Cup by beating England for the first time ever in an ODI. Scotland's total of 371 for 5 was also the highest by an Associate side, and the fourth-highest ever conceded by England.•Getty Images
Afghanistan's scrappy rise through the cricket ranks is the stuff of fairy tales, so everyone was rooting for a magical win in their first-ever Test, against India. It was not to be, of course. Afghanistan lost by a colossal margin - an innings and 262 runs - getting bowled out twice in one day •BCCI
Could Alastair Cook have had a better send-off? He departed Test cricket as he debuted - with a century against India. England winning the series 4-1 was the big, shiny bow on his going-away gift.•Getty Images
Heads rolled and rolled after Cricket Australia's cultural reviews. First, chairman David Peever (in photo) was forced to resign, not least because he withheld the result of the reviews until minutes after his re-election. Then Mark Taylor stepped down from his post as a CA director. CEO James Sutherland had previously announced his resignation in June.•Getty Images
It wasn't the retirement Rangana Herath wanted or deserved, but a limp Sri Lanka gave up their rain-soaked three-Test series to England with barely a whimper. Herath finished with 433 Test wickets, the most by a left-arm bowler, putting him eighth on the all-time list.•Getty Images
It has been quite the year for New Zealand. Their 2-1 victory in the UAE was their first away win against Pakistan since 1969. Their captain, Kane Williamson, was a rock in the batting order, while debutant spinners Ajaz Patel and Will Somerville took crucial wickets in the two victories in Abu Dhabi.•AFP