South Africa vs England, 2nd T20I: AB de Villiers helps Proteas to easy series win

The tourists were bowled out for 171 in their last over and South Africa reached 172 with 32 balls to spare, wrapping up a comfortable win that stood in contrast to their narrow victory in Friday`s first encounter in Cape Town.

De Villiers broke his own record for the fastest half-century by a South African in a T20 International, trimming the mark from 23 to 21 balls.

Together with Hashim Amla, he enjoyed a first-wicket partnership of 125 to effectively seal victory before he was caught out on the boundary. Amla finished unbeaten on 69.

England were their own worst enemies when Eoin Morgan ran out in-form batsman Alex Hales with the score on 61, but a 96-run partnership between the England captain and Jos Buttler had guided the tourists to 157-3 in the 17th over.

They fell apart, however, when they then lost their last seven wickets for just 14 runs to leave South Africa with a modest target to chase at a ground where high scoring is the norm.

Sunday’s match ended England’s 10-week tour where they won the four-match test series 2-1 but surrendered a 2-0 lead in the ODI series to lose 3-2, before being beaten in both T20 internationals.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni becomes first captain to win 30 Twenty20 International matches

The 34-year-old has led India 56 times in the shortest format of the games, winning 30 games, with a success rate of 55.45%. Besides the 24 defeats, there were a No Result and a Tie too.

Dhoni also holds the record for most matches as captain.

Ireland captain William Porterfield has 43 matches with 23 wins in the second place, ahead of West Indian Darren Sammy, with 41 matches and 22 wins.

Yesterday, India won the second match of the three-match series at Dhoni's home-ground Ranchi by 69 runs thanks to an all-round show from both the batsmen and bowlers.

Shikhar Dhawan made a career-best 51 off 25 deliveries, and after a solid foundation with fellow opener Rohit Sharma, who made 43 off 36, India posted 196 runs.

In defence, Indian bowlers dismissed the Lankans for 127 with Ravinchandran Ashwin taking three wickets, while conceding only 14 runs from his four overs spell.

Ashish Nehra, Ravindra Jadeja and Jasprit Bumrah also got two wickets each.

Third and final match will be played tomorrow at Visakhapatnam.

Experimenting is a word banned from Indian cricket: MS Dhoni

Dhoni was obviously referring to the promotion of Hardik Pandya ahead of more established batsmen like himself and Yuvraj Singh and off course the introduction of Ravichandran Aswhin as opening bowler.

But the skipper assured that Team India will continue to experiment, to give every team member enough opportunity to prove themselves.

"Almost 200 runs were scored, but there was something for everyone. Experimenting is a word banned from Indian cricket, but yes we're trying different things. Our top order has done well, so we're trying to give everyone an opportunity whenever possible," he said during the post match presentation.

He also stressed on the importance of fielding and hailed his bowlers for a brilliant outing.

"Most of our fielders are above average. Sometimes in T20s, even the slower ones can get away. But yes, fielding is very important. Being a bit unorthodox behind the stumps really helps, but credit to the bowlers for beating the batsman," he added.

India vs Sri Lanka, 2nd T20I: Dhawan, Ashwin star as clinical hosts hit back to level series 1-1

After losing the first match at Pune, Shikhar Dhawan and Ravinchandran Ashwin played stellar roles to help India register a convincing 69-run win at Ranchi to level the series 1-1.

Chasing India's 196/6, the visitors could managed only 127 from the stipulated 20 overs with the loss of nine wickets.

Sri Lankan skipper Dinesh Chandimal won the toss and invited India to bat first on a seemingly dry top. Unlike the pitch in Pune, the pitch at JSCA International Stadium Complex was a typical sub-continental one, with limited assist to new ball bowlers.

India started their innings in a confident note with Rohit Sharma hitting the very first delivery of the match for a four over the covers. The Mumbai batsman was, however, soon overshadowed by a brilliant Dhawan.

The Delhi batsmen went onto registered his first fifty of the format. He reached the mini-milestone off just 22 deliveries. His batting efforts earned him the Man of the Match award, eclipsing Thisara Perera's brilliant hat-trick.

He was ably supported by a Rohit, who made 43 off 36 deliveries. Their 75-run opening stand laid the foundation for India to post a good total. Besides the openers, Indian top-order batsmen produced runs even as skipper Dhoni promoted rookie Hardik Pandya ahead of himself and Yuvraj Singh.

Ajinkya Rahane, batting at no.3, contributed with 25 valuable runs off 21 deliveries, while Suresh Raina and Pandya played two superb innings to get India to a good total.

Raina scored 30 off 19 balls, and he took some to time to get into the T20 mood. But it was altogether a different story for Pandya, who scored 27 off 12.

If it was not for Perera's hat-trick, India could have ended up scoring more than 210. The Sri Lankan bowler got the wickets of Raina, Pandya and Yuvraj in the penultimate over to restrict the Indian innings.

Dhoni started the defence with Ashwin opening the bowling. And his tactics showed results with spinner getting the better of Lankan opener Tillakaratne Dilshan in the second ball. Ashwin's superb start was responded by Ashish Nehra, by taking the wicket of Seekkuge Prasanna in the very next over.

From that double-blow, the visitors never recovered with Indian spinners taking over the reigns in the middle overs.

Ashwin returned with an impressive figures of 4-0-14-3, while Nehra was bit expensive for his 3-0-26-2.

Jedeja contained the middle order batsmen, taking two wickets by conceding 24 runs in his four-overs spell.

Skipper Dhoni himself got into act with a super-fast stumping to dismiss rival skipper, who made 31.

Chamara Kapugedera was the top scorer for Sri Lanka with 32 off 27.

But towards the end, youngster Jasprit Bumrah showed his guile once again, taking two wickets to clean up the Lankan tail.

Third and final match of the series will be played at Visakhapatnam on Sunday.

India vs Sri Lanka, 2nd T20I: Thisara Perera becomes 4th bowler to pick hat-trick

In the second T20I match at Ranchi, the Sri Lankan pace bowler took the wickets of Hardik Pandya, Suresh Raina and Yuvraj Singh of successive deliveries to claim the feat.

After that brilliant 19th over, the 26-year-old all-rounder ended with a figure of 3-0-33-3. Thanks to his exploits, Lankans somehow managed to restrict the innings under the 200-run mark.

Aussie great Brett Lee became the first bowler to pick a hat-trick in T20I, against Bangladesh in 2007 at Cape Town during their ICC World Twenty Group F match.

Shakib Al Hasan, Mashrafe Mortaza and Alok Kapali were his victims.

New Zealand pair Jacob Oram and Tim Southee were other bowlers to have achieved the feat.

Oram took the wickets of Angelo Mathews, Malinga Bandara and Nuwan Kulasekara in Colombo in 2009, while his Southee dismissed Younis Khan, Mohammad Hafeez and Umar Akmal in Auckland in 2010.