Dale Steyn and Lungi Ngidi se the tone up front as the Standard Bank Proteas crushed Australia by six wickets in the opening ODI on their tour ‘down under’ at Perth on Sunday.

The Proteas won the toss on a typically lively pitch and went in with their full front-line pace attack. There was no recovery for Australia after Man of the Match Steyn and Ngidi reduced them to 8/3 inside 6 overs. They later slumped to 66/6 in 21 overs as Andile Phehlukwayo (3/33 in 6 overs) also played an important role.

The Proteas seamers again restricted Sri Lanka to a below par total to enable the visitors to complete the Dambulla double and go 2-0 up in the five-match ODI series on Wednesday. The winning margin was 4 wickets with 43 balls to spare.

Sri Lanka again won the toss and decided to bat first but were placed under immediate pressure when Lungi Ngidi took two wickets off successive balls in his opening over.

Windies captain Jason Holder has been named as captain of the Team of the ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifier 2018, which was announced on Monday. Holder scored 219 runs and took 15 wickets in eight matches and inspired his side to the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 as well as to the final of the qualifiers which Afghanistan won by seven wickets.

The side was selected by a jury of cricket experts, which included former Windies fast bowler Ian Bishop, ex-Zimbabwe fast bowler Pommie Mbangwa, Australia’s former World Cup winner Lisa Sthalekar (who is also the first woman cricketer to score 1,000 runs and take 100 wickets in ODIs) as well as Ian Callender (correspondent, Belfast Telegraph) and Liam Brickhill (correspondent, ICC Digital).

Off-spinner Mujeeb Rahman upstaged Rashid Khan’s world record of fastest to 100 ODI wickets while opener Mohammad Shahzad produced a sparkling half-century as Afghanistan defeated the Windies by seven wickets to win the ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifier 2018 at the Harare Sports Club on Sunday.

Mujeeb returned figures of 9.5-0-43-4, including three wickets in four balls of his last over, as the Windies were skittled out for 204 in 46.5 overs after electing to bat first. Shahzad stroked his second successive half-century, while hitting a 93-ball 84 with 11 fours and two sixes to steer his side home with 9.2 overs to spare.