Simple alert not getting fired or triggered although the alert is being run on schedule

[bluepearl79]

I'm using the splunk enterprise version 7.1.1. I've created a simple alert:

host=sample |noop|stats count|eval count = count + 1

It runs on cron schedule for every 5 minutes, and i'm trying to get the alert notified via email.
I've set up my email settings as show in the link:

http://blogs.splunk.com/2014/06/27/splunk-alerts-using-gmail-twitter-phone-calls-and-much-more/

but it still hasn't worked. Any ideas why?