South Africa v Australia : 1st Twenty20 in Cape Town

Australia 147 for 5 (Watson 52) beat South Africa 146 for 7 (Duminy 67, Cummins 3-25) by 5 wickets

 

A powerful half-century from Shane Watson helped Australia make an encouraging start to their tour of South Africa as they won the opening Twenty20 in Cape Town by five wickets. The teenage debutant Patrick Cummins collected three wickets as South Africa reached 146 for 7, led by a solid innings from JP Duminy, and the target wasn't enough to prevent Australia from turning around their recent poor T20 form.

Although Australia's chase was on track for most of the innings, a couple of good late overs from Morne Morkel and Lonwabo Tsotsobe gave South Africa a sniff in the dying stages. Australia needed six from the final over, bowler by Rusty Theron, and a single from Matthew Wade was followed by a square-driven boundary and a single from Steven Smith to get Australia home with three balls to spare, their second win from their past nine T20s.

Simmons century leads West Indies to 298

50 overs West Indies 298 for 4 (Simmons 122, Samuels 71) v Bangladesh

 

Lendl Simmons finally made his first international hundred, five years after his debut, to power West Indies to a big score in the first ODI against Bangladesh in Mirpur. He was supported by another West Indies batsman who has resurrected his international career this year, Marlon Samuels. The pair put on 150 runs to demoralise a Bangladesh team that was on a high after their dramatic win in the Twenty20 two days ago.

Simmons had made half-centuries in six of his previous nine ODI innings, but failed to reach triple-digits each time. On Thursday, he made a fidgety start before settling in on a surface that didn't have much in it for either the medium-pacers or the spinners.

In the sixth over, he was hurried into a pull which was top-edged just wide of the bowler, then he mistimed a straight drive with which he still managed to find the boundary, before jumping outside leg as he looked to crash a short ball through off without managing to connect. He punched the air in frustration after missing out on a cut in the next over, but then showed how good he could be with fours through cover off the back and front foot.