Umar Gul claimed remarkable figures of 5-6 to help dismiss the South Africa for just 100 and set up victory by the enormous margin of 95 runs in the second and deciding KFC T20 International match at Supersport Park on Sunday. The first game was washed out without a ball being bowled at Sahara Stadium Kingsmead on Friday, allowing the tourists to claim the series 1-0.

Mohammed Hafeez led his team to a formidable total of 195-7 with an explosive innings of 86 from just 51 deliveries with nine fours and four sixes. A second-wicket partnership of 83 with Ahmed Shezad (46 from 25 balls) laid the platform for a late onslaught and a total of well over 200 seemed on the cards with five overs to go.

Lendl Simmons demonstrated his might with a brilliant display of six-hitting on Saturday as West Indies beat Zimbabwe by eight wickets in the first T20 International. The opener cracked six towering sixes in a match-winning 63 not out as the world champions took a 1-0 lead in the two-match series.

The 28-year-old brought great excitement to the fans as the Windies easily reached 131-2 to win with 23 balls to spare. This was after the bowlers restricted the visitors to 130-8 off 20 overs on a good batting surface at the Vivian Richards Cricket Ground. For Simmons it was his third half-century in this format and earned him the Man-of-the-Match award on his return to the team. He peppered the leg-side boundaries, sending five of his sixes in the arch between deep midwicket and long-on.

The West Indies Cricket Board’s Selection Panel has named the 13-man squad for the upcoming two-match T20 International Series as the World Champions take on Zimbabwe. The matches will be played on Saturday and Sunday at the Vivian Richards Cricket Ground in Antigua. First ball is 2 pm (1 pm Jamaica Time).

The team will be led by Darren Sammy, who was at the helm when the West Indies won the ICC World T20 title in Sri Lanka last year. There is a first-time call-up in this format for fast bowler Shannon Gabriel and a recall for allrounder Christopher Barnwell – who were along the leading performers during last month’s Caribbean T20 tournament.

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.