Cricket Australia's National Selection Panel (NSP) has today announced a 12-man squad for the KFC Twenty20 International against Sri Lanka at the WACA on 31 October which will open the 2010-11 Australian international summer.

The squad is: Michael Clarke (c), Cameron White (vc), Brad Haddin, John Hastings, David Hussey, Clint McKay,  Dirk Nannes, Stephen O'Keefe, Peter Siddle, Steve Smith, David Warner, Shane Watson.

South Africa were pushed to the limit by a spirited Zimbabwe before clinching the two-match Standard Bank International Pro20 series at the Diamond Oval, Kimberley, on Sunday afternoon. A daring batting performance from the visitors proved insufficient to stop South Africa from clinching a meagre eight run win, and, in truth, Zimbabwe will be disappointed that they did not level the series after holding a winning position for a great deal of the second half of the match.

It was only in the last 5 overs that the Proteas got control back but even then the visitors must have felt they had a chance with 15 needed off the last over - by no means insurmountable in this format of the game. However, Proteas captain Johan Botha held a trump card in Rusty Theron who has regularly defended smaller targets in domestic competition. Theron was once again up for the challenge and conceded only 6 runs off his 6 deliveries.

Johan Botha's official debut as the captain of the Proteas' Standard Bank Pro20 squad could hardly have gone more smoothly than it did as he led his side to a seven-wicket victory over Zimbabwe at OUTsurance Oval on Friday night with 25 balls to spare.

He did lose the toss and he did have a catch dropped off his bowling but the only real setback was the injury suffered by pace spearhead Morne Morkel while fielding after bowling his first two overs. The official diagnosis was a sprained ligament of the right ankle and it seems unlikely that the younger Morkel will be fit to play in the second Pro20 match at Kimberley's Diamond Oval on Sunday.

It will be something of a new era on many fronts for the Proteas Standard Bank squad when they play Zimbabwe in the first of two Pro20 International contests at Bloemfontein's OUTsurance Oval on Friday evening (6pm start).

Johan Botha has considerable international captaincy experience but this will be the first game since he was awarded the Pro20 captaincy on a full-time basis. The national selectors have also continued on their youthful policy for this format of the game which started with David Miller's call-up (then only 20 years old) for the limited overs section of the West Indies tour earlier this year.

After a humiliating tour of Australia, Pakistan have started their journey on the road to redemption in the best possible way by recording a clean-sweep of their 'home' T20 series being played in England. After a comfortable 23-run win in the 1st T20 international yesterday in Edgbaston, the Pakistanis repeated the dose at the same venue, this time recording a facile 11 run victory.

While the first match was won largely thanks to the belligerent hitting of young Umar Akmal, today belonged to almost niggly contributions both up and down the order with bat and ball. No batsman for either side crossed the early thirties and no bowler produced a match-winning spell, but as a combined unit Pakistan put on 162 runs on the board, and the Australian chase stuttered and spluttered, but never really took off.

New Zealand opening batsman Brendon McCullum has won the ICC Twenty20 International Performance of the Year in recognition of his 116 not out off 56 balls against Australia in New Zealand. This is the third year the award has been given to recognise the most impressive performance by a player in Twenty20 Internationals during the 12-month voting period and it continues to mark the advent of this exciting format of the game at international level.

On 28 February 2010, during the Black Caps' Twenty20 International match against Australia at Christchurch, McCullum smashed 116 not out off 56 balls, in a performance that included 12 fours and eight sixes. He then helped his side to victory when the match went down to a one-over eliminator to decide the result.