Australia beat Pakistan by 94 runs

Dubai: David Warner's whirlwind half-century, and bowling exploits of Patrick Cummins and Mitchell Starc enabled Australia to defeat Pakistan by 94 runs in the 3rd T20.

David Warner and Shane Watson smashed a century opening stand to propel Australia to 168 for 7 in the third and final Twenty20 match against Pakistan.

Warner hit 59 off 34 balls and Watson scored 47 off 32 deliveries in an electrifying 111-run first wicket stand — the best Australian partnership for any wicket in the shortest format of the game.

Pakistan, already leading 2-0 in the series, stumbled in their run-chase at 36 for 6 before being bowled out for 74 in 19.1 overs.

Pakistan were out of reckoning once the top order crumbled, with seamers Mitchell Starc 3 for 11 and Patrick Cummins 3 for 15 taking the bowling honors. It is Pakistan's heaviest ever defeat in T20s.

South Africa beat England in T20 Opener

Chester-le-Street: Jacques Kallis guided South Africa to a seven-wicket win over World Twenty20 champions England in the first Twenty20 international at Chester-le-Street on Saturday.

The Proteas were in trouble at 29 for three, chasing a seemingly modest 119 for victory

But opener Kallis, returning to international duty after being rested from the drawn one-day series between the two countries, made 48 not out of 44 balls with seven fours.

Together with left-hander JP Duminy (47 not out) he shared an unbroken stand of 90 in 91 deliveries as the Proteas, who won with an over to spare, went 1-0 up in a three-match series ahead of this month's World Twenty20 in Sri Lanka.

The series continues in Manchester on Monday.

Pakistan beat Australia in Super over to take series

Pakistan won the second Twenty20 against Australia in a thrilling Super Over finish at the Dubai Stadium here on Friday, taking an unbeatable 2-0 lead in the three-match series.

With both tied on 151 runs at the end of 40 fascinating overs in the match, a Super over round was played for the result.

Pakistan paceman Umar Gul restricted Australian batsmen David Warner, Shane Watson and George Bailey to 11-1 before Umar Akmal and Abdul Razzaq hit the required runs, the winner coming off the last delivery.

The third and last match will be played here on Monday.

Pakistan had made 151-4 with Mohammad Hafeez (45), Nasir Jamshed (45) and Kamran Akmal (43 not out) contributing with the bat.

Ashwin 4th, Ajmal becomes No.1 in ODI rankings

Dubai: Pakistan offspinner  has replaced teammate Mohammad Hafeez as the number-one ranked bowler. Saeed was the highest wicket-taker in the recent ODI series against Australia where he picked 10 wickets at an economy rate of 3.41.

His teammate Hafeez slipped to second position in the bowlers' table but moved up a place to second in the Rankings for allrounders with a career-best rating of 413. South Africa paceman Dale Steyn has re-entered the top 10 in the bowlers' table. He has moved up four places to 10th.

Meanwhile, Indian offspinner Ravichandran Ashwin has moved up by two places to fourth while skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni has dropped a place to sixth in batting Rankings.

Ashwin is the only Indian player in the top-20 in the bowlers' list while in the chart for the batsmen, India have two players with Virat Kohli retaining number two spot. South Africa's Hashim Amla, who was the highest run-getter in the series against England with 335 runs, has consolidated his position as the number-one ranked batsman.

Meanwhile, India remained unchanged at number three position in the team list, headed by England and followed by South Africa.

Pakistani spinners wreck Australia in first T20

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, Sept 5, 2012  - - Pakistan's spinners Mohammad Hafeez, Saeed Ajmal and Raza Hasan bowled Australia out for just 89 to set up an easy seven-wicket win in the first Twenty20 international here on Wednesday.

Ajmal (2-13), Hasan (2-15) and skipper Hafeez (2-24) shook the Australian batting before left-arm paceman Sohail Tanvir (3-13) wrapped up the innings in 19.3 overs. Pakistan then romped home in 14.5 overs to take a 1-0 lead in the three-match series.

It was an easy win for Pakistan at Dubai Stadium after going down 2-1 in the preceding one-day series.

Shoaib Malik hit the winning boundary, finishing with nine not out while Kamran Akmal finished with an unbeaten 31 with three boundaries and a six.

The victory was never in doubt once Pakistan bowled well. Hafeez (17) and Imran Nazir (22) gave Pakistan a solid start of 30 before losing Hafeez and Nasir Jamshed (10) in quick succession.

Akmal and Malik saw off the target without any discomfort.

The second match will be played here on Friday.

Hafeez was delighted at his team's fightback.

"We stuck to our plans and the bowlers did very well to bowl them out cheaply," said Hafeez. "We were more determined to do well after the disappointment of the one-day series."

Australian captain George Bailey praised Pakistan.

"Certainly they were the better side and when we were bowled out for 89 there was not much for the bowlers," said Bailey. "Hopefully we do well in the next game."

Earlier Australia were let down by poor shot selection against quality spin bowling after they were sent into bat.

Australia hit only three boundaries in the innings with their last coming in the fourth over as Pakistani spinners never allowed them to settle on a turning track, reducing their opponents to their second-lowest Tweny20 total.

Opener David Warner top-scored with 22 off 25 deliveries, hitting two boundaries.

Cameron White (15) and Bailey (14) were the only others to reach double figures.

Paceman Umar Gul dismissed Shane Watson (eight) in the third over while Tanvir accounted for Michael Hussey (one) in the next before Warner and Bailey put on the best stand of the innings, adding 33 for the third wicket.

Pakistan's spinners then came into their own, as the last eight wickets went for a mere 43 runs.

Australia's lowest Twenty20 total of 79 came against England at Southampton in 2005.

Amla, de Villiers help SA to level series

Nottingham: South Africa routed England by seven wickets in their fifth and final one-day international at Trent Bridge, to tie the series 2-2.

South Africa recovered from 14 for 3 to coast with 15.3 overs remaining, after skittling England for 182.

Hashim Amla hit an unbeaten 97, while Proteas captain AB de Villiers made 75 not out. James Anderson had England's best bowling figures with 2 for 41.

"We've been a little bit inconsistent to my liking," De Villiers said. "(But) there are a lot of positives, especially today, the way the boys came back with a lot of character. Under pressure we showed a lot of guts there and that's the thing I would like to hang on going forward."

Earlier, South Africa's Robin Peterson claimed 3 for 37 as the hosts were all out with 4.4 overs to spare.

Captain Alastair Cook made 51, but Chris Woakes and Craig Kieswetter were the next highest scorers, with 33 not out and 33 respectively.

"Clearly 180 on that wicket was nowhere near enough," Cook admitted. "Quite a lot of soft dismissals from everyone really. Pretty much all of us gave our wickets away.

"It's frustrating. We came into this game trying to wrap up the series and you're not going to do that when you bat like that."

The hosts sorely missed Jonathan Trott, who on Wednesday was ruled out for the rest of the domestic season with a broken hand, sustained during Sunday's six-wicket win at Lord's in the fourth ODI.

England won the toss and chose to bat, only to lose two wickets in the space of four balls.

Ian Bell (10) was lbw to Peterson to the final ball of the fourth over, a call he referred in vain and the decision to promote Ravi Bopara to number three in Trott's absence backfired when he fell for a duck, edging Steyn behind in the next over.

Trott's replacement Jonny Bairstow was nearly caught behind off Steyn in the ninth over when he was on 10 but De Villiers just failed to hold a one-handed catch.

Peterson then missed a chance to remove Cook caught and bowled in the 18th when the batsman was on 34. But Bairstow fell for 29 in the next over when he pulled Morne Morkel to Justin Ontong on the square leg boundary.

That ended a stand of 55 for the third wicket and England's hopes of posting a competitive score suffered a serious blow when Eoin Morgan was out for 0, after some inspired captaincy.

De Villiers brought on spinner JP Duminy for the 19th over and moved Hashim Alma in to mid on.

Morgan tried to hit Duminy's fifth ball out of the ground but misjudged his shot and chipped him straight to Amla.

Cook advanced to 50 with a single off Wayne Parnell, only to fall in the next over, the 26th, when he lofted a simple return catch to Faf du Plessis.

That left the usually aggressive Kieswetter to muster as many runs as he could with the tail and he was unsuited to the anchor role. With over 12 overs remaining he skied a Morkel delivery to Amla at mid off.

James Tredwell was beaten in the flight by Peterson and bowled for 6, before James Anderson skied Peterson's next ball to Morkel for a golden duck.

Woakes, in the side because Steven Finn has a back problem, blocked the hat-trick ball but ran out of partners when Jade Dernbach slashed Wayne Parnell behind for 2.

A cluster of early wickets threatened to make things interesting, but England's early momentum vanished and the run chase became one-sided.

Graeme Smith (1) fell to the 10th ball of the innings, slashing Jade Dernbach to James Tredwell, who took a juggling catch at second slip.

Five balls later Du Plessis' poor series continued when he nicked Anderson behind for 3.

In Anderson's next over, the fifth, Dean Elgar was caught behind for 1, but Amla and De Villiers killed the contest with an unbroken stand of 172, a South African record for the fourth wicket against England.

Both batsmen reached 50 with singles off Anderson in the 23rd over and the only alarm came when de Villiers just avoided being run out by Woakes in the 28th.

Amla cover drove Tredwell for the first six of the match and the rout was confirmed when Amla, voted man-of-the-match and man-of-the-series, whipped Dernbach through square leg for four.