Cricket South Africa (CSA) on Wednesday re-appointed Faf du Plessis as captain of the Proteas squad for the KFC T20 International Series against Pakistan next month. AB de Villiers has requested to stand down from this role. This means that the Proteas will have a different captain for all three formats of the game with De Villiers continuing as captain of the Proteas Castle Lager squad for the five-match Momentum ODI Series against the same opponents.

“Handing Faf the T20 captaincy is an exciting option for us to explore our leadership resources,” commented national coach Gary Kirsten said. “He showed a lot of potential during the series against New Zealand in both the T20 and ODI formats, and this will be another great opportunity for him to work on his role as a leader.

The England cricket team lead from the front by their skipper Stuart Broad sealed the 3 match T20 series against hosts New Zealand 2-1 with a resounding 10 wicket win in the 3rd T20 in Wellington on Friday.  After electing to field first on a belter of a drop in pitch at the Westpac Stadium, the English bowlers restricted the Kiwis to a below par 139/8 in 20 overs, to set up an achievable target for the English batsman. Skipper Stuart Broad was the pick of the bowlers for the visitors and returned with enviable figures of 3/15 from his 4 overs. Fellow quicks Steve Finn 0/18 and Jade Dernbach 3/36 too played key roles in the bowling effort while they were also backed by some sharp fielding from the Poms.

On the other hand, besides opener Martin Guptill who made a 55 ball 59, none of the Kiwi batsman managed a substantial score on a good batting strip. Kiwi captain Brendon McCullum threatened in his brief stay but faltered after having made just 26.

The World T20 Champions, West Indies, breezed through to a 27-run win against Australia in the sole T20 International at Brisbane to end their short tour of Australia on a high. Batting first on winning the toss, West Indies made the most of excellent batting conditions and a second string Australian line-up to post an imposing 191-6 on the board in their 20 overs. Johnson Charles continued his superb form from the One Day series to make a blistering 57 from just 35 balls to give the visitors the perfect start. Australia were never really in the hunt in their chase, with two run outs at the top of the order, especially that of top scorer Adam Voges (55 from 31 balls) setting them back in a big way. In the end, the hosts' run chase petered out to 164-8 with Sunil Narine and Kieron Pollard doing the damage with the ball taking 2 and 3 wickets respectively.

The West Indies lost Chris Gayle (8) early to an outstanding catch from Nathan Counter-Nile, but recovered thanks to an 88 run partnership between Charles and Darren Bravo (32). At that stage the Windies were scoring at 9 an over, and with wickets in hand threatened to make well above 200. However, the Australians were able to sneak some quiet overs in the middle and pick up wickets just when the West Indies batsmen were threatening to cut loose.

Confidence is oozing in the Trinidad and Tobago camp ahead of their Caribbean T20 2013 opening match against Jamaica on Sunday. Skipper Denesh Ramdin and his team looked relaxed and comfortable in their training session on Saturday at Queen’s Park Oval.

“It’s really great to hear that tickets are almost sold out for the first match. We can expect a full house when we take on Jamaica tomorrow. Playing at home is always great for us and we enjoy the feeling of being in front our supporters. This is the kind of occasion we dream of and we will look to get off to winning start tomorrow night (Sunday night). It will be a fantastic atmosphere,” the longstanding wicket-keeper said.

India salvaged some pride and skipper MS Dhoni might have just hung on to his job as the hosts levelled the T20 series with Pakistan 1-1 thanks to an excellent batting display by Yuvraj Singh, backed up by some good bowling from India's medium pace posse at the death. Yuvraj was in his element with the bat, spanking his way to 72 from just 36 balls to help India post an imposing target of 193 runs for Pakistan to chase. While they started the off well, Pakistan crumbled towards the end of their innings and could muster up just 181 runs in reply, despite an exceptional half-century from skipper Mohammad Hafeez. Ashok Dinda came back very well for India towards the end of the game, picking up 3 wickets after a poor start.

The 2nd and final T20 match between arch rivals India and Pakistan kicked off at the Sardar Patel Stadium in Ahmedabad today, with the latter winning the toss and deciding to field first once again. Pakistan also unsurprisingly named an unchanged side from the first T20, while India replaced Ravindra Jadeja with R Ashwin.

Pakistan went one up in the T20 series as they beat India by 5 wickets in an exciting low scoring affair in Bangalore. It was a game that went down to the wire, with control shifting between sides throughout the match. After a great start, the Indian batting line-up collapsed in the second half, with the hosts posting a measly 134 runs as the target. Debutant Bhuvneshwar Kumar started off strongly, as he reduced Pakistan to 12-3 at the end of the third over. Pakistan captain Mohammad Hafeez fought back though, putting on more than 100 runs along with Shoaib Malik and the game looked like it would go to Pakistan. But Ishant Sharma and Ashok Dinda fought back well for India towards the death, and Pakistan went into the final over with 10 runs needed to win. While the over started off well for India, Malik ended the game as he hit Ravindra Jadeja for 6, sealing the match in Pakistan's favor with two balls to spare.

The atmosphere at the M Chinnaswamy stadium in Bangalore was electric as India and Pakistan prepared to face off for their first game of the two match T20 series. The series comes after a break of almost 5 years, with ties between the two nations being shaky post the terror attack in Mumbai in 2008.

An excellent unbeaten century from New Zealand opener Martin Guptill helped the Black Caps bounce back from their demoralizing defeat in the opening T20 match of their series against South Africa with a thrilling last ball win in the first T20 International ever to be played at East London.

New Zealand won the toss again today, but appeared to have decided that chasing would be their preferred approach having been bowled over for just 86 after choosing to bat first in the last game. Guptill came into the side for Peter Fulton, while the Proteas opted to give a T20 debut to spinner Aaron Phangiso in place of the injured Chris Morris, while Morne Morkel predictably replaced Dale Steyn.