Alastair Cook has become the first Englishman past 10,000 in Test cricket on the fourth day of the second Test against Sri Lanka at the Riverside.

Cook achieved the feat when he tucked Nuwan Pradeep for a boundary to midwicket from the sixth ball he faced as England closed on a series-sealing victory.

The opener began needing just another five runs for his five-figure milestone, as his team set out to make just 79 to take an unassailable 2-0 series lead. A sparse crowd was there to witness his achievement, marked by Cook with a shake of partner Alex Hales’ hand and then a raised bat.

Already England’s record run scorer, the 31-year-old has become the 12th player to join the 10,000 club having played 127 Tests for England and scored 28 centuries since making his debut against India in 2006.

Sunil Gavaskar was the first man to reach the landmark in 1987, followed by Allan Border six years later. Steve Waugh, Brian Lara, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Ricky Ponting, Jacques Kallis, Mahela Jayawardene and Shivnarine Chanderpaul followed in their footsteps, with Kumar Sangakkara the last man to join the club in December 2012.
England v Sri Lanka: second Test, day four – as it happened
England win Sri Lanka series after Alastair Cook hits 10,000 Test runs
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At 31 years and 157 days, Cook has displaced Tendulkar as the youngest player to reach five-figures in Tests.

“Cook will be a top Test batsman and breaking records for a long time yet, there’s no sign of him fading,” said the former England captain Nasser Hussain. “His greatest thing is his stubbornness and taking the hard path. I really don’t think there’s ever been an England player mentally stronger than Alastair Cook.

“When you first saw him on the field you didn’t quite know who was captain of England. In these last couple of years, you watch England play and it’s crystal clear. He’s got an authority and aura about him now, his captaincy has gone from strength to strength and you can’t argue with it. Cook’s record for England is fantastic.”

Another former England captain Michael Vaughan was among thsoe to pay tribute to Cook on Twitter. “10,000 Runs and still counting ... Unbelievable achievement from the England Skipper ... Cook,” he wrote.

BBC broadcaster and former professional cricketer Jonathan Agnew added: “Clear Cook would be a special Test player from the start. Flew round the world from Windies to Nagpur 2 days before debut: scored 60 and 104”

Even prime minister David Cameron got in on the act, describing Cook’s feat as “an incredible achievement.”

Sri Lankan pacer, Nuwan Kulasekara has announced his retirement from Test cricket.

In a Sri Lankan Cricket press release Kulasekara said, “I would like to retire from playing Test cricket with immediate effect. After much thought I believe it is the right time to retire and I hope it will allow me to better prepare for ODI and T20 cricket, which I would like to continue playing for Sri Lanka subject to good performance and selection.”

Kulasekara had made his debut in test cricket in  April 2005 and since then he has taken 48 wickets in the 21 Tests he had played. In Spite of the fact that he wasn’t a genuine pacer, he had the capability to swing the new ball with complete accuracy. Considering one of his best performances in which he took 2 four-wicket hauls he took against Pakistan in Colombo in 2009 and ended the match with a match-winning figures of 8-58 in 28.4 overs.
The last test match Kulasekara played a nail-biting match in June 2014 at Lord’s, which ended up in a draw. Unfortunately, he was not in the playing XI at Headingley, however, Sri Lanka beat England to seal a series win.

Watch Heroes Vs Rest of World T20 Match Live Score Scorecard Result Winner Highlights Video 2015 : Indian cricket team Best Captain MS Dhoni, opener Virender Sehwag will star in the Help for Heroes XI for the Help for Heroes charity match scheduled for later tonight. The charity match has star attractions like Dhoni, Sehwag, former England skipper Andrew Strauss, Damien Martyn among others. Rest of the World XI, the second team is all studded with big international names like New Zealand skipper Brendon McCullum, former Aussie opener Matthew Hayden, South Africa’s Graeme Smith. The match will be played at the Kia Oval in London and will start at 17:45 GMT and 11:15pm IST. Now below get complete details of Help For Hero Vs Rest of the World XI T20 Match 2015.

So far, Euro 270k raised for @HelpforHeroes

Heroes Win This T20 Match By 4 Wickets.

MAN OF THE MATCH : DHONI SCORED 38 RUNS.

Live Score : 

Heroes :- 159/6 In 19.3 overs.

Help For Heroes Scorecard :-

Players	Bowlers	R	B	4’s	6’s	SR
AJ Strauss	c DPMD Jayawardene b SB Styris	26	17	4	0	152.94
V Sehwag	b DL Vettori	30	25	4	0	120.00
HH Gibbs	c Sub. (Simon Morlon) b A Razzaq	8	9	1	0	88.89
DR Martyn	c SB Styris b DL Vettori	6	10	0	0	60.00
MS Dhoni	not out	38	22	4	1	172.73
Major Green	c SB Styris b DL Vettori	13	21	2	0	61.90
DJ Malan	c GC Smith b SB Styris	22	13	3	0	169.23
A Mahmood	not out	0	0	0	0	0.00

Extras (leg byes 3, wides 13) 16

Total (wickets 6, 19.3 overs) 159 Live 8.15 RPO

Fall of Wicket: 64(AJ Strauss, 6.2), 67(V Sehwag, 7.2), 75(DR Martyn, 9.3), 81(HH Gibbs, 10.3), 112(Major Green, 15.2), 155(DJ Malan, 19.1)

Bowlers	O	M	R	W	EC	AV	EX
TG Southee	4	0	50	0	12.50	-	8
Shapoor Zadran	4	0	30	0	7.50	-	0
A Razzaq	4	0	24	1	6.00	24.00	0
DL Vettori	4	0	28	3	7.00	9.33	5
SB Styris	3.3	0	24	2	6.86	12.00	0

**************

ROW :- 158/6 IN 20 OVERS

Rest Of World XI 1st Inning Scorecard

Player	Wicket	R	B	4’s	6’s	SR
ML Hayden	st †MS Dhoni b GP Swann	34	33	3	1	103.03
GC Smith	b D Gough	8	9	2	0	88.89
BC Lara	c AJ Strauss b A Mahmood	15	21	1	0	71.43
DPMD Jayawardene	b D Gough	48	28	5	1	171.43
BB McCullum	c †MS Dhoni b A Mahmood	10	12	0	0	83.33
SB Styris	not out	4	5	0	0	80.00
Corporal Wray	not out	2	4	0	0	50.00

Extras (byes 1, leg byes 6, wides 14) 21

Total (wickets 5, 18.4 overs) 142 Live 7.61 RPO

Fall of Wicket: 15(GC Smith, 2.6), 67(ML Hayden, 9.2), 96(BC Lara, 13.2), 132(DPMD Jayawardene, 16.2), 136(BB McCullum, 17.3)

Bowlers	O	M	R	W	EC	AV	EX
D Gough	3.4	0	19	2	5.18	9.50	1
SP Jones	3	0	19	0	6.33	-	4
A Mahmood	3	0	23	2	7.67	11.50	5
MJ Hoggard	3	0	25	0	8.33	-	1
GP Swann	4	0	32	1	8.00	32.00	2
Major Green	2	0	17	0	8.50	-	1

Watch Help For Hero Vs Rest of the World XI T20 Match Team Squad Details

Help for Heroes XI: Andrew Strauss (c), Herschelle Gibbs, Virender Sehwag, MS Dhoni, Damien Martyn, Lieutenant Commander Jonathan Parker, Corporal Jake Wray, Shahid Afridi, Graeme Swann, Simon Jones, Matthew Hoggard, Darren Gough.

Management: David Gower and Michael Holding.

Rest of the World XI: Brendon McCullum (c), Matthew Hayden, Graeme Smith, Mahela Jayawardene, Major Storm Green, Brian Lara, Abdul Razzaq, Scott Styris, Dan Vettori, Tim Southee, Shapoor Zadran.

Management: Gary Kirsten; Manager: Sunil Gavaskar.

Hero Vs Rest of the World Match Live Score Stream Broadcast Channel 2015

The match will have no television telecast but can be watched on Live Streaming: Sky Sports, Star Sports, Ten Sports and PTV Sports and online at Starsports.com

British Prime Minister David Cameron poses with cricketers and veterans of the armed forces on the eve of the match.

The Help for Heroes team and the Rest of the World XI pose at the end of the match at the Oval in London.

Andrew Strauss, the victorious captain of the Help for Heroes team, celebrates with the trophy.

A 120-run stand between Nasir Hossain (52) and Litton Das (75) went in vain as Gurkeerat Singh starred with the bat and ball (65 & 5/29) to help India A secure a 96-run victory after fifties fromMayank Agarwal, Sanju Samson and Rishi Dhawan powered the hosts to 322.

Gurkeerat struck two of most crucial blows, dismissing both Nasir and Litton and then wrapped up the tail while Sreenath Aravind (3/29) was instrumental in pegging the visitors back early.

In a daunting chase, Soumya Sarkar started cautiously be fore getting his rhythm going by lofting a Sreenath Aravind delivery over mid-off for a four early. But the southpaw attempted one shot too many in the over and ended up pulling a short delivery from Sreenath Aravind straight to Kedar Jadhav at short midwicket. Aravind struck very next ball, trapping Anamul Haque in front of the stumps. Mominul Haque denied Aravind the hat-trick but Bangladesh A's chase was rocked as early as the fourth over.

Aravind struck for the third time with a sensational delivery, that pitched on middle-and-leg and moved back slightly to breach Talukdar bat-pad gap and send the off-stump flying as Bangladesh A limped to 34 for three in 5.4 overs.

Skipper Mominul and Sabbir Rahman launched a flashy counter-attack, chancing their arms at every opportunity. The duo scored three boundaries each until Mominul chased a Rishi Dhawandelivery outside the off-stump and nicked it to Sanju Samson behind the stumps. Four overs later, Dhawan bowled a well-disguised slower one, coaxing Sabbir to push at it half-heartedly. The bowler completed a low catch to reduce Bangladesh A to 87 for five in 16.3 overs.

Nasir Hossain and Litton began the rescue work, bringing up a 50-run stand off 56 balls when the former slog-swept Karn Sharma for a six in the 26th over. The pair looked fairly comfortable against Karn and off-break bowler Gurkeerat Singh Mann as Bangladesh A inched closer to the 150-run mark.

After starting well, the Indians took their foot off the pedal and the Nasir-Litton pair took full advantage, slamming their respective fifties, adding a 100-plus partnership and keeping the visitors in the chase. Gurkeerat then, struck against the run of play as Nasir failed to keep his flick shot down and Raina took sharp catch at short mid-wicket. This wicket ended a 120-run stand for the sixth wicket.

A couple of overs later, Litton followed Nasir back to the pavilion when he shimmied down the track for an attempted slog and missed the ball that crashed onto the stumps. This dismissal, virtually, brought down the curtains on the Bangladesh A run-chase as they struggled to 219 for seven in 38.3 overs, still needing 104 off 69 deliveries. Gurkeerat soon wrapped up the final three wickets ? dismissing Rubel Hossain, Arafat Sunny and Taskin Ahmed ? to complete his fifer and India A's comprehensive win.

First innings report:

Mayank Agarwal's solid knock (58 off 70) at the top of the order, a fighting 102-run partnership between Gurkeerat Singh Mann (65 off 58) and Sanju Samson (73 off 76) for the sixth wicket andRishi Dhawan's late-order blitz (56* off 34 balls) powered India A to 322/7 after they were put in to bat. Off-spinner Nasir Hossain (2/51) had the hosts at one stage. After Mayank's initial fluency and the Gurkeerat-Samson rebuilding, Dhawan's onslaught helped India A score 98 runs in the final ten overs to post a daunting target for Bangladesh A.

On a wicket that looked rather lively with a bright tinge of green, 20-year-old pacer Taskin Ahmedhad an erratic start bowling a wide down the leg side that ran away to the fine leg fence. India A openers Unmukt Chand and Mayank Agarwal freed their arms against the pacer, smashing three boundaries in his second over while, at the other end, Shafiul Islam had a more disciplined start. Just when the two batsmen began to look comfortable, Taskin struck as Unmukt edged a length ball to wicket-keeper Liton Das.

Manish Pandey walked out to the middle but his stay didn't last long as Shafiul induced a similar outside edge and Liton pouched it with ease again. The small section of the crowd that turned up to witness the game let out huge cheers as Suresh Raina walked out to join Mayank in the middle.

A brief lull ensued in the scoring rate as Raina and Mayank began to rebuild but the former soon shifted gears, taking the aerial route against Sarkar to collect two boundaries first down the ground and then over the mid-wicket region - as India A reached 75/2 in 14 overs.

The first over of spin right after the drinks break reaped rich dividends for the visitors as off-spinner Nasir Hossain bowled from around the stumps and trapped Raina in front of the stumps in the third ball of the over. The ball was angled in to the left-hander but there was hardly any turn and it struck Raina, who offered a tame forward defensive stroke, in line. Raina walked back for 16 off 28 balls as India A were down 76 for three in 15.3 overs. Bangladesh A stepped up their efforts on the field when a direct hit from Nasir Hossain at point sent the stumps flying and caught new batsman Kedar Jadhav short of his crease. In a bid to create further inroads, Mominul brought back Taskin as the 20-year-old Sanju Samson arrived in the middle.

While wickets tumbled at one end, Mayank brought up his stroke-filled fifty off 63 balls with a sweep for four off Nasir Hossain his eighth of the innings. A couple of overs later, however, Mayank endured a momentary lapse of concentration as his attempted slog sweep went straight down the throat of Soumya Sarkar at deep mid-wicket.

Mominul brought on another spinner Sabbir Rahman and dried up the runs. New man Gurkeerat Mann injected the much-needed life into the fading Indian essay. He contributed 40 in the 50-run stand for the sixth wicket with Samson and brought up his half-century off 43 deliveries to put some pressure back on the fielding side. Samson soon brought up his fifty as India A looked set for a strong finish, but Arafat Sunny trapped Gurkeerat for 65 in the 41st over to stem the flow of runs. All-rounder Rishi Dhawan arrived and threw his bat around for an 34-ball essay of 56, that included eight fours and two sixes. He and Samson added 78 runs off 48 deliveries for the seventh wicket to propel India A to 322/7 in 50 overs.

Teams:

India A (Playing XI): Unmukt Chand(c), Mayank Agarwal, Manish Pandey, Suresh Raina, Kedar Jadhav, Sanju Samson(w), Sreenath Aravind, Dhawal Kulkarni, Rishi Dhawan, Gurkeerat Singh Mann, Karn Sharma

Bangladesh A (Playing XI): Mominul Haque(c), Nasir Hossain, Soumya Sarkar, Anamul Haque,Litton Das(w), Rubel Hossain, Rony Talukdar, Sabbir Rahman, Taskin Ahmed, Shafiul Islam,Arafat Sunny

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) confirmed through their official Twitter account on Sunday, that Ravi Shastri would continue as Team India director till World T20 2016 to held in March in India. BCCI also extended the tenures of assistant coaches Sanjay Bangar, Bharati Arun and R Sridhar. These extensions have been made based on the recommendations of the Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC) comprising of former players - Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and VVS Laxman - board president Jagmohan Dalmiya and secretary Anurag Thakur.

"Acknowledging the performance of the Indian Cricket team and the efforts of the coaching staff in recent times, the CAC endorsed the extension of their tenure," a BCCI release said.

Shastri was brought on board as the director during India's tour of England in 2014, even as Duncan Fletcher held the position of the head coach. Shastri remained in the position through the Australia tour as well as the ICC World Cup in 2015. Fletcher parted ways after his contract expired after the showpiece tournament and speculations of the BCCI appointing a new head coach were rife.

The Indian board had renewed Shastri's contract ahead of the team's first assignment after the World Cup - the tour of Bangladesh in June. India suffered a shocking defeat in Bangladesh and Shastri did not accompany the side in their following tour of Zimbabwe, kicking up speculations once again. However, Shastri was part of India's historic series win in Sri Lanka and has been rewarded with another extension until next March.

Mohammad Shami, who is recuperating after a shoulder surgery, and left-arm spinner, Pragyan Ojha, back with a re-modelled action, are among 30 players named by Board of Control for Cricket in India's (BCCI) senior selection committee for a preparatory camp ahead of the South African team's upcoming tour of India.

Shami was out of the reckoning after the ICC Cricket World Cup following a knee surgery. He also missed India's away series against Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. Ojha, having had his re-modelled action cleared by International Cricket Council, came up with a good showing while playing for India 'A' against Australia 'A' and is currently touring Sri Lanka with the Bengal team.

The likes of Gautam Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh, Robin Uthappa and Virender Sehwag were not even considered for the probables list, indicating that they are out of the mix as far as selection to the senior team is concerned. The list comprises 12 specialist batsmen, three wicketkeepers, one fast bowling all-rounder and 14 bowlers, including eight fast and six spinners.

In the case of Shami and Wriddhiman Saha, their fitness will be assessed ahead of the gruelling 72-day series, which includes four Tests, five ODIs and three T20 Internationals.

The camp will be held in Bengaluru from September 21 to 27.

Full squad: Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Virat Kohli, Shikhar Dhawan, Murali Vijay, K L Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Rohit Sharma, Stuart Binny, Wriddhiman Saha, Naman Ojha, Ravichandran Ashwin, Amit Mishra, Harbhajan Singh, Ishant Sharma, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Umesh Yadav, Varun Aaron, Karun Nair, Suresh Raina, Mohammed Shami, Axar Patel, Pragyan Ojha, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohit Sharma, Karn Sharma, Ambati Rayudu, Dhawal Kulkarni, Kedar Jadhav, Manish Pandey.

Mumbai's Ranji Trophy preparations seems to have begun on a perfect note. They recently won the Buchi Babu tourney in Chennai, and as they began practice at MCA 's Bandra-Kurla Complex facility on Wednesday, a special, but familiar guest came calling. Launching the nets with a traditional ritual - breaking a coconut and garlanding the stumps - Sachin Tendulkar spent almost three hours with the Mumbai team.

"I enjoy spending time with youngsters in the Mumbai team. It's fun to interact with them and see how their preparations are going for the season. I try to share my experiences with them," Tendulkar told TOI on Wednesday.

Being the 40-time champs, Mumbai are always under pressure to win the title, with anything less than a final appearance seen as a failure. "The boys are talented for sure. Mumbai has a tremendous cricketing history, so the expectations are obviously going to be there. I told the boys to take confidence, rather than burden and pressure, from this history ," the batting legend said.

Over the years, many have voiced concern that Mumbai doesn't produce as many India cricketers as it did before. Tendulkar felt that this process was part of a cycle. "Everyone wants to play for India. But it's not so easy. There have been many (Mumbai) players who've represented India. There was a time when Mumbai had as many as six players in the Indian team. You can't expect the same thing to continue. Then, it was Karnataka and Delhi's turn to do so. It's a cycle.

"The important thing is that we're able to produce quality cricketers. I would like the Mumbai cricketers to do well, but in the larger picture, I would like India to produce good cricketers. It's important to have a healthy domestic cricket competition which produces cricketers of international level who're good at the international level too," the all-time top run-getter in Tests said and added: "I'm very hopeful about the Indian team. It's a beautiful blend of talented youngsters. There may be changes, but the core will continue for a few years to come."

The retired great was happy that Mumbai had former India stumper Chandrakant Pandit as their coach this season. "He's an experienced campaigner. He has played a lot of cricket to understand different situations, and what is needed to be successful in the Ranji Trophy," Tendulkar noted.

Pandit, meanwhile, was thrilled that Tendulkar came and spent considerable time with the young players. "It's a big boost for the boys before the season. He was observing all the players, and offered his advicetips to a few of them. He spoke to both batsmen and bowlers."

Elaborating on the interaction, the Mumbai coach said: "He told the batsmen 'even if you're aggressive, but the conditions and situation don't allow, play out a bowler's spell. You must bide your time before taking on a bowler. Make him bowl the line and length which you want him to bowl.' He advised the bowlers to try and read the minds of the batsmen. He told the boys about small things which can help them."

Young Mumbai batsman Siddhesh Lad who was a beneficiary of Tendulkar's wisdom said: "He suggested a slight change in my grip. I'll try to see if it works."

There was special advice for Mumbai's latest batting sensation Shreyas Iyer too. "If your team is relying on you to win games, enjoy that feeling. It means you're special," the maestro is believed to have told him.