USACA chief Darren Beazley resigns

USA Cricket Association chief executive Darren Beazley has resigned after just 14 months in the role. USACA announced in a press release on Tuesday that Beazley was stepping down in order to return to his native Australia where he will take up a position as the chief executive of Swimming Western Australia.

Beazley's initial contract was for three years, but his tenure was six months shorter than his predecessor Don Lockerbie, who lasted 20 months before being fired in November 2010 for reasons USACA has never stated.

"I wish all involved with US cricket the very best for the future and look forward to watching the progress of the sport in the coming years at all levels," Beazley said.

Sources have indicated that the lack of support from the USACA board of directors to implement sweeping governance changes to USACA's administrative structure played a role in his seeking to leave USACA and return to Australia. Beazley went on a nationwide tour in October 2013 along with ICC global development manager Tim Anderson to campaign for support to back recommendations from an independent governance review by TSE Consulting.

Key recommendations from the review were to reduce the size of the current USACA board, cut their power in half and give that 50% to independent directors. There were also recommendations for establishing term limits for board members, redefine membership categories and introduce athlete representation on the board.

However, a decision was taken at USACA's AGM in November to postpone any move to implement the changes. Instead, a governance implementation committee was announced with any changes being delayed until at least the summer of 2014.

Beazley's resignation also comes in the wake of damning financial data made public last month that USACA was more than $3 million in debt at the end of the 2012 tax year. The returns showed a 47% decline in membership revenue from 2011 as member leagues revolted after the controversial 2012 USACA elections in which 32 out of 47 member leagues were disenfranchised.

USACA is also under increasing pressure from the American Cricket Federationn (ACF), which was formed in the wake of the 2012 election. Many member leagues have defected for the ACF including the largest league in America, New York's Commonwealth Cricket League.

Beazley had strong ties with Anderson and ICC top brass in Dubai but his departure may be the last straw for USACA in a series of administrative missteps. USA now faces the very real threat of a third administrative suspension by the ICC in the last decade.

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England discover map through uncharted waters

Having tossed away opportunities in the field with reckless abandon and slumping into negative territory at the start of their chase, England found the courage to make amends

Crowe: Hales innings best of the tournament

It wasn't quite the shot heard around the world but Alex Hales' bludgeoned six high over midwicket to seal victory for England against Sri Lanka should reverberate round the World T20. How a team that had seemed stricken by bad form and low confidence at the halfway point managed to perform such a volte face, pulling off their highest run chase with six wickets and four balls in hand, is a question only the T20 gods can answer.

Just when it appeared England had lost their way irretrievably after stumbling in circles for months, they discovered a map to guide them safely, resplendently through unchartered waters. T20 is about the outsized, the extraordinary, the odds-defying and the synapse-shredding. Hales provided plenty of that in his soaring crescendo of an innings but, like his partner Eoin Morgan during a record third-wicket stand, the calmness inside was just as important.

Sri Lanka had accepted England's generous largesse and gambolled their way to another new high score on the ground. England had dropped four simple chances in the field and missed a run-out too. Shoulders had slumped, eyes appeared hollow. Few had high expectations of the team's World T20 chances but this had the look of a tired farce. Indignation at an early decision not to award a catch that looked to have been clearly taken was gradually eroded by dismay at each successive, basic error.

What to do? Perhaps, during the ten minutes the teams were off the pitch at the interval, Ashley Giles and Stuart Broad merely passed around a photocopy of the serenity prayer:

"God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
The courage to change the things I can,
And wisdom to know the difference."

Michael Lumb's supreme effort to remove Mahela Jayawardene first ball had gone unrewarded. England's poor catching had gifted an advantage graciously received by a formidable opponent. So inauspicious was the start of their reply that they effectively moved into negative territory after the first over, a double-wicket maiden. None of these things could be changed but Hales and Morgan showed the courage required to make amends.

The required rate rose above 12 an over even before the halfway stage. In the tenth, Morgan hit the first six of the innings. The crowd's response to a steady, if initially unthreatening, flow of boundaries was a mixture of curiosity and wonder; as the tempo increased and outrageous possibility coalesced around the two batsmen in the middle, the cheering became more fevered. By the end, as Hales finished off Sri Lanka with a barrage of sixes, the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury was rapturously receiving the 2014 tournament's first centurion.

Hales, who had previously been dismissed on 99 and 94 in T20 internationals, punched the air and removed his helmet upon reaching three figures, the first England player to do so. He finished the job in the next over, raising his hands aloft as the ball sailed towards the stands again. He may never crack first-class cricket but he is first-class at T20.

Victory not only changed the complexion of the group and revived England's chances of reaching the semi-finals but it allowed them to make some significant gains after the slow regression of recent times. At the last World T20, Sri Lanka ended their participation at the Super 8 stage, with Lasith Malinga filleting them for a five-wicket haul. On this occasion, he was blunted and Ravi Bopara, who had talked of his plans to deflect Malinga's yorker, demonstrated the extent of England's learning by twice doing just that to pick up consecutive fours at the start of the 18th over.

Morgan played his first significant knock in more than a year, passing fifty for the first time since England's failed World T20 defence in Sri Lanka two years ago. These two teams have met at each of the last two tournaments and the winner has gone on to the final. England will exceed expectations if they make the knockouts but, having beaten the No. 1-ranked side, may now feel that circumstances favour them for a Dhaka rally.

For almost the entirety of Sri Lanka's innings, it seemed as if England's malaise would continue. They have talked stoically about pulling through but looked most likely to be rolling out of Chittagong on a gurney after a wretched performance in the field. "Whatever it is, it's not catching," as Richie Benaud used to say. England feel like they have been trying to catch a break for weeks but they did not show any proficiency at the skill during Sri Lanka's innings, tossing away opportunities with reckless abandon.

Ironically, the most difficult take of the night was the spark for what followed, as England disintegrated in the wake of Jayawardene's non-dismissal quicker than you could said "foreshortening". There was irony, too, in Jayawardene's drop of Hales. Jayawardene was the chief beneficiary of England's litany of mistakes but by the end his isolated gaffe had proved to be more costly. Wisdom in T20 can be as simple as knowing what you can and can't affect. Taking catches is a good place to start.

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Hales 'buzzing' after England's first T20 ton

Gardner: Scintillating display by Hales

Alex Hales had no doubt that his match-winning hundred against Sri Lanka, the first time an England batsman had reached three figures in a T20 international, was the most important contribution of his international career to date. Hales' stunning innings led England to their highest chase in the format to reignite a smouldering World T20 campaign.

"It's an amazing feeling. It still hasn't sunk in what's happened," Hales said afterwards, looking remarkably cool despite having just launched an enormous six to win the match with four balls to spare. Twice out in the 90s previously, Hales broke the three-figure barrier by clearing the boundary off Nuwan Kulasekara's penultimate over, from which 16 runs came in total to bring England's target of 190 within reach.

"I always had the confidence I would get the chance again," he said. "Hundreds don't come around very often in the short format so I'm buzzing I got it today and in a huge fixture for our country."

After a shambolic performance in the field, when England dropped four catches and missed a run-out, they flopped out of the blocks at the start of the chase, Kulasekara removing Michael Lumb and Moeen Ali in a double-wicket maiden. Hales and Eoin Morgan, slowly at first and then with increasing assurance, rebuilt the innings and by the time their 152-run partnership was broken, the pendulum was beginning to swing England's way.

"It wasn't an ideal start but we saw by the way they batted it was an excellent wicket and the way Morgy came in straight away and took the game back to them made my job a lot easier," Hales said. "We had plans to stay in the game as long as we could, get a partnership and reassess at the halfway stage. It paid off."

Morgan and Jos Buttler fell in the same over but Ravi Bopara deftly glided his first two balls from Lasith Malinga for four to keep England up with the asking rate. Although they had needed to score two runs a ball for around half the innings, Hales said that he began to feel the victory was possible "with six or seven overs left".

"We needed about 12 an over so we always knew it would be a tough ask," he said. "But Morgy played brilliantly and then Ravi came in against the danger man Malinga and hit the first two balls for four. It was brilliant to see."

The win, against the No. 1-ranked side and one of the favourites for the competition, pushes England back into contention into what is turning into a close-fought group. A difficult winter in Australia has been followed by stop-start limited-overs form, a young and experimental squad disrupted by injuries while uncertainty remains about the currently vacant head coach's position. Reaching the knockout stages in Bangladesh would an unexpected, and welcome, success

"It would be massive for us, we are underdogs in this tournament, playing in the subcontinent historically we haven't gone too well," Hales said. "This win will help us build momentum for the next two games, we've still got to play Holland and SA. I think if we perform to the best of our ability we'll get two wins."

Hales was dropped by Mahela Jayawardene on 55, small change after England donated four similar straightforward misses during the Sri Lanka innings but ultimately of great importance. Two overs later, Hales targeted Ajantha Mendis repeatedly through the leg side, hitting three sixes in an over that cost 25. In 2014, Hales had previously made 125 runs in seven innings for England; he almost equalled that in one dramatic fusillade here. A celebratory glass of wine has been well earned.

"It hasn't been a great winter personally, I probably didn't do as well in the Big Bash as I'd have liked," Hales said. "But I've still felt confident, I've been hitting the ball well in the nets and felt a big score was close. I'm pleased it came today in a winning side."

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BCCI points to IPL players' plight

The Supreme Court's googly, as it were, to the BCCI in the form of three proposals has thrown the board into a state of "uncertainty", with the mooted suspension of Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals causing the most concern. While there has been no indication of a coordinated meeting of senior officials, it is understood that the board's response to the court on Friday will be to point out that suspending two IPL teams will most affect the players.

It is also expected to oppose the proposal of an "outsider" to head the BCCI - the court suggested the name of Sunil Gavaskar - by pointing to the number of former players in the board hierarchy.

"No one anticipated the court's proposal to suspend the two teams," a senior board official said. "The court has given the BCCI very little time to respond. I don't think the BCCI members can meet for certain in one place before tomorrow morning, so the only way is to set up a teleconference."

The biggest setback for the IPL, he said, was not BCCI president N Srinivasan's status or possible replacement but a curtailed IPL with fewer teams. The BCCI's arguments in court on Friday are therefore likely to centre on its belief that it would be "virtually impossible" to conduct the IPL with just six teams. That, it is felt, would affect logistics and, more importantly, the players.

"It would be really difficult to redraw plans, especially considering that the tournament is supposed to start within three weeks. The logistical and financial problems can, however, be solved, but what can be done about the players? It would be unfair on almost all of the 50-odd players from these two teams to be deprived, for no fault of theirs, of the opportunity to play the tournament and earn their livelihood," the board member said.

A six-team IPL, with its existing home-and-away format followed by four games in the knockout stage, will bring the number of matches down to 34 from 60. That will have a knock-on effect on broadcasters and sponsors, and the BCCI's concern will be how to compensate them, given that the long-term contracts are based on 60-match seasons. Neither PepsiCo India, the league's title sponsors, nor Multi Screen Media Pvt Ltd, parent company of host broadcaster Max, were willing to comment.

On the issue of an interim or replacement president, the board is likely to seek a change in the court's stated criterion - a "seasoned or respected cricketer" - to one more aligned to its own eligibility rules. "For Gavaskar to be appointed as the board chief, as per the Supreme Court directive, we will require an amendment to the BCCI constitution. We may request the court to appoint a candidate who fulfills the eligibility criteria set for the post of the president [by the constitution]."

The BCCI's rules state that anyone acceding to the president's post must have been a past or present office-bearer and vice-president, and have attended at least two BCCI AGMs.

In any case, the board has not accepted that Srinivasan will be ousted; rather, they feel he is best placed to decide on his future. "It is tough call," an official said. "It all depends on Srinivasan now: if he wants to go himself or if he wants to stick to his decision of telling the court that he is willing to step aside pending a time-bound probe. The BCCI on its own cannot force Srinivasan to resign. But we will have to wait for the judges to take a final decision tomorrow."

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Wine, pizza keep Steyn pumped up

Dale Steyn is as light-hearted off the field as he is intense with ball in hand. For a man whose furrowed brow at the top of his mark can make batsmen involuntarily feel for the ball outside off, he is endearingly goofy in person, laughing at himself, deflecting praise and letting his thoughts tumble out. He even uses the word "rad".

Steyn is also the leading bowler among the teams to have entered the World T20 at the Super 10 stage, with six wickets from two games. Asked about his feat on Monday, when he won the match with seven runs needed off the final over against New Zealand - the lowest number defended in T20s and only the third time it had been done- he said: "I didn't think I could win it but we did, so bonus!"

Contrast that with the fire in Steyn's eyes as he collected the final delivery of the match, broke the wicket at the non-striker's end and propelled his wiry frame on a giddy victory dance looking like the world's angriest policeman.

It is perhaps no wonder that such a fidgety, high-energy player does not like being confined to a hotel for long periods. Players are generally not allowed out for security reasons - though on Wednesday he tweeted a video of himself and Paddy Upton skateboarding along a closed road and waving at grinning locals. You can imagine Steyn donning a disguise to sneak past the guards and post pictures of his adventure on Instagram, if he had to.

But while Steyn is an outdoors type whose fitness levels can encompass takeaway pizza or the odd McFlurry, he revealed that some of the players have a slightly more refined way of passing the time in Bangladesh.

"It's been so difficult. We have a wine club, we meet every now and then and have one or two glasses of vino," he said, without divulging who was most likely to become a sommelier as a second career. "We've got a movie club, we have a big team room at the hotel, so we get in there, whether playing poker or watching movies or things like that. We're not really allowed to leave the hotel much. There's a Pizza Hut across the road. I've never eaten so much pizza in my life."

He also chuckled at the suggestion he is now the team's "Special One", after Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho, having prevented South Africa from suffering a second group defeat. That title should naturally go to the coach, Russell Domingo, he said.

Still, the importance of that win was not lost on Steyn, speaking ahead of South Africa's third Group 1 match, against Netherlands. He chose to emphasise the contribution of others, in particular his bowling partner Morne Morkel, who conceded 14 off the penultimate over but managed two dots from his last three balls. In T20, those are the margins between getting your aeroplane tickets home and the chance to taste another Shiraz or two before the trip is over.

"The mood in the camp could have been completely different if we'd lost that game," he said, "I think it would have been tickets for us. In this tournament it is kind of tickets if you don't win all your games. It's difficult, the little one percenters. If you go back to the game, Morne went for a lot of runs, which is an odd thing but it happens. People might criticise him but, his last three balls, he bowled three death yorkers and the last one went for four. If he had gone for two and one in those previous balls it would have been down to three or four off the last over and that would have been almost impossible.

"The little one percenters really count in this game. Just those little things, he might have walked away from the game feeling hard done by from not getting what he wanted but he finished off exactly how he was supposed to and ultimately we won the game."

Steyn suggested South Africa are in a "win-everything" situation, although it is still possible for a team to go through on four points. Sri Lanka have set the pace with two wins already and Steyn had some sympathy with the Netherlands, after they were gutted for 39 on Monday evening. "If you're not facing those type of guys all the time it can be quite difficult," he said, referring to the challenge of playing mystery spin or Lasith Malinga's sui generis yorkers. As Netherlands will find out, Steyn is also in a bracket all of his own.

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Shrubsole, Gunn steamroll India Women

England Women 98 for 5 (Taylor 28, Dabir 2-21) beat India Women 95 for 9 (Raj 57, Shrubsole 3-6, Gunn 3-15) by five wickets
Scorecard

India's campaign in the Women's World T20 slipped further off course as they suffered a heavy five-wicket loss to England in Sylhet. Anya Shrubsole and Jenny Gunn wrecked the batting line-up, which if not for Mithali Raj's half-century might have presented a grimmer sight than the eventual 98 for 9.

The two England seamers were remarkably effective, accounting for six batsmen and costing only 21 runs from their full quota. The fielders backed them up too, with Lydia Greenway picking up a sharp catch and effecting a difficult run-out early on. Shrubsole was judged Player of the Match for figures of 4-1-6-3.

India seemed to have exhausted their stock of good luck after winning the toss as they slumped to 31 for 5 in the ninth over, with all those dismissed failing to reach double-figures. At the other end, the captain Raj struck a doughty 56-ball 57, including eight fours to keep her side afloat. Her dismissal in the 17th over ended all hopes for late acceleration, but India managed to last the 20 overs.

Seamer Soniya Dabir orchestrated a minor top-order stutter during England's chase, but England knew they had enough time to overhaul the target. Opener Sarah Taylor had afforded her side some momentum at the top with a 29-ball 28 and Greenway came in at No. 4 to hold one end up. There was a bit of excitement at the back end when Natalie Sciver was run-out off a direct hit, but by that time England only had 11 more runs left to pocket their first victory of the tournament.

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66-Test Prince announces retirement

Former South African middle-order batsman Ashwell Prince has announced his retirement from the game.

Prince, who last played internationally in the Boxing Day Test against Sri Lanka in 2011 and will turn 37 in May, will play his last match in South Africa for the Warriors against the Cobras starting on March 27. He will end his career at Lancashire over the South African winter, where he is a registered as a Kolpak player.

"I am looking forward to a new phase in my life and am very grateful for the opportunities that cricket has afforded me," Prince said. "I am thankful that I have had a wonderful career from a sport that I love and thank everyone that has been involved in any way over the past 19 years of my career."

Prince played 66 Tests for South Africa between 2002 and 2011, scored 3665 runs at an average of 41.64, which included 11 hundreds and 11 fifties. Of those, he has in the past listed his 101 against England at Lord's in July 2008 and the 150 he made against Australia in Cape Town the following year among his favourites. Prince also played 52 ODIs and a single T20.

His choice of top centuries tells the story of Prince's time as an international cricketer, where he carved a reputation for being a bridge over troubled water and batting South Africa to safety. From the first match he played, against Australia at the Wanderers in 2002, Prince was the calm in the storm. He top-scored with 49 as South Africa were bowled out for 159 and went on to lose by an innings.

Prince's first hundred came against Zimbabwe at Centurion in 2005 and was swiftly followed by centuries against West Indies in Antigua and Australia in Sydney. By then, Prince had established his spot in the side. He went on to score Test centuries against nine of the ten Test playing countries with Sri Lanka the exception and was part of the team who began the remarkable run of South Africa being unbeaten in Test series on the road since 2006.

He played a key role in the country's first post-readmission series win over England in England in 2008 with a century at Lord's to set up the fighting draw which inspired South Africa for the rest of their tour. Prince was also in the squad that beat Australia Down Under in 2008-09 but was ruled out with a broken thumb.

JP Duminy replaced him and scored a fifty on debut and a century in the following match and Prince found himself unable to get his place back. He was left out of the first two Tests of the return series but recalled for the third, because of an injury to Graeme Smith. Prince was also asked to open the batting and captain in that match. After initially accepting the latter, he turned it down when he was informed of the former, which was not his regular batting position. With defiance as a motivator, Prince scored 150 and South Africa won the match.

Prince would play 18 more Tests for South Africa, without getting into triple-figures and pressure on him to produce mounted. When South Africa lost a fourth consecutive match at Kingsmead, to Sri Lanka, Prince was the casualty. He was dropped for the New Year's Test the following week and did not play for the country again.

Although his international career ended, Prince continued to excel domestically. In the winter after his axing he played as an overseas professional for Lancashire and was their only player to top 1,000 runs in the season. The following year Prince signed a two-year Kolpak deal with Lancashire, which he will complete this year.

He has also been a regular member of the Warriors franchise in South Africa and currently lies sixth in the ongoing first-class competition run charts. The team paid tribute to him at a dinner on Tuesday night. Prince's future plans include starting a football academy in his city of his birth, Port Elizabeth, where he said there are not enough opportunities for young children interested in pursuing football as a career. Prince currently lives in Cape Town with his wife and two young sons.

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Bopara intent on clearing the ropes

England go into their second match of the Super 10s in a position where defeat could effectively spell the end of their World T20 campaign after little more than a week in Bangladesh. They face Sri Lanka, ranked No. 1 in the format and on the back of two wins from two; England, meanwhile, have won two of their last eight T20s. The good news is that Ravi Bopara has been dreaming of hitting sixes.

Bopara may eventually command a place in the order higher than his current station at No.6 - it would likely have been seven had Joe Root not suffered a broken thumb in the Caribbean - but he has gamely adapted to the role of a gun-slinging six-shooter coming in below Eoin Morgan and Jos Buttler. He knows that the pressure to start clearing the ropes is almost immediate, even against as fiendish a late-innings bowler as Lasith Malinga.

"Obviously you have to hit sixes in T20 cricket to push the run-rates up. I can only speak for myself but I do need to practise hitting the balls over the ropes," he said. "I'm going to face roughly between 10-20 balls, at most, batting at number six, so I really need to be ready to hit a six after my third or fourth ball."

What about needing to hit a six off the first ball? Off Malinga? Dinesh Chandimal, Sri Lanka's captain, almost creased up at the idea, saying he had never seen it done. "I can't hit a six against Malinga," he said.

Bopara has only been dismissed by Malinga twice in 13 encounters, both on England's tour of Sri Lanka in 2007, although that is not necessarily proof of mastery. Just hitting Malinga is what some batsmen dream of - ask Netherlands - and Bopara said that his match strategy may involve resorting to something a little smarter.

"I have been lying in my bed at times and thought: why don't I just hit the first ball for six?" he said. "Because more often than not, the bowler just wants to land it on a length and hopefully get a dot. So it's probably the best ball to hit out of the park. Yeah, I have thought about it.

	I have been lying in my bed at times and thought: why don't I just hit the first ball for six? Ravi Bopara

"It is tough to hit someone like Malinga out of the park consistently, which is why he's probably the best in the world. The best way to approach Malinga is to try to deflect him, past the gaps behind point, hopefully get bat on it behind square, that sort of stuff. That is the best way to approach him, because he does have a very, very good slower ball and if you're looking to have a big swing at him, that slower ball can do you as well. Personally, I'd try to deflect him."

England's sketchy recent form with the bat comprises several factors, not least being injury-enforced changes to personnel. Michael Lumb and Alex Hales, one of the most successful opening partnerships in the game, have only twice produced significant stands since August - 111 at Chester-le-Street and 98 at Bridgetown - and both times England have won.

Eoin Morgan, meanwhile, appears to have struggled with the extra demands being made of him as England's marquee short-form player. His average dipped below 30 for the first time since his second T20 international innings, earlier this month and a careworn 12 from 15 balls on Saturday maintained the slump. He seems more at ease in the finisher role he performed at the start of his career and tellingly averages 19.00 at No. 4 compared to 45.84 at No. 5.

With Moeen Ali showing an apparent flair for batting at three against New Zealand (soft dismissal notwithstanding), perhaps Bopara, who showed his affinity for this part of the world by finishing as top-scorer in last year's Dhaka Premier League, could provide a solution.

"I'd love to bat a little higher, but that's not my decision," he said. "The conditions in the Dhaka Premier League were slightly different. We didn't play any of the games in the night. They were slightly drier and lower wickets, but in terms of batting up the order, yes, I'd love to bat higher up but that's not my decision, and that's probably not my role in the team."

Stuart Broad talked before England's opening game about the need for continuity of selection and players to know their roles. Bopara seems to know his and, following a nomadic international career that has involved more comebacks and reinventions than the line-up of The Fall, it may serve current purposes to keep things that way. Hit sixes, win the match, nothing more complicated than that.

"It is a must-win game for us. I don't think we know the mathematical side of it - we have to win. Winning against Sri Lanka would be a big thing for us, a big confidence boost and that's how we're looking at it."

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Du Plessis backs batting combination

Crowe: Duminy excellent under pressure

So this is how South Africa want their T20 line-up to work. Start slowly, build calmly and then have a full go at the end, like they did today against New Zealand.

That is the reason they insist on keeping Hashim Amla, who is too often labeled 'not a T20 player,' at the top of the order, and why they do not want to promote AB de Villiers into it. They see Amla as having the right measure of conservatism and class to kick things off and de Villiers, along with David Miler and Albie Morkel, as having the creativity to close things off.

When it works, even when not exactly according to plan, it results in totals like today which South Africa will back themselves to defend. Despite the squeaky-bum ending, the score would have left most teams comfortable and was a nod to what South Africa are aiming for with the combinations they have in operation now.

South Africa have divided the innings up into segments, starting with the powerplay. Faf Du Plessis said in Chittagong they've decided "45 seems to be the par score so I wanted to get close to that and not more than two wickets down." South Africa were 42 for 3 in the first six overs, a little short and an extra man down but they were there and thereabouts, especially because the man they want to survive the opening exchanges, Amla, was still there.

"Hashim's role is to bat with someone. If someone else on the other side keeps scoring boundaries, Hashim can be the structure and the solidness through the batting line-up," du Plessis explained. "If we look at our top five, it's made up of guys who, apart from Hashim, naturally play aggressively so he fits into that game plan. It's his role to manoeuvre the rest of the innings."

Amla is not required to go at a strike rate of much more than 100, which is where he hovered throughout his innings today. He is not required to take risks either which is what has earned him so much criticism from those feel he is not fit for this format. It's worth remembering Amla occupied the top spot on the ODI batting rankings not long ago and du Plessis is confident Amla can change tack if he needs to. "If there is a day where those guys don't score runs then Hashim knows that he has to play a little bit quicker."

Today was not that day because JP Duminy was on the other end, timing the ball and finding the boundary. All Amla had to do was "stay with JP for a period of time to make sure that our hitters at the back didn't come in when there were too many balls left." In other words, Amla has to keep things going for as long as possible in the second-third of the innings because only after that, should the rest be needed.

South Africa do not subscribe to the theory that the most destructive hitters need to face the most balls. They don't want de Villiers, Miller and Morkel batting when the majority of overs are still to be bowled. Perhaps that is because, as Miller and Morkel showed, they are only up for a quick boom-boom before the bust. Perhaps they only do that because they don't have any time to settle but the chicken-egg debate is not one South Africa are aiming to solve.

They've decided what comes first and it's not the men they have labeled finishers. "We need to make sure we have Miller and Morkel coming in towards the end of the innings not when they have to still worry about rotating the strike but where they can just play their natural game," du Plessis said.

The big-hitters don't always come off but they have the best chance to if Amla and then Duminy allow them the freedom to, as they did today "JP controlled the innings beautifully. He took risks when it was needed and made sure the strike was rotated," du Plessis said. "As a blueprint of a T20 innings, that's one of the better ones you will see."

It was textbook because Duminy was circumspect to start and upped his tempo later without getting carried away. "In a perfect world, you always want that freedom to express yourself but with freedom comes a little bit of responsibility," Duminy said. "We are finding the right mix. If we can perfect that, we stand a good chance of producing results in these kinds of tournaments."

Duminy has found the balance and it resulted in two top-scores for the team in two matches. More importantly for him, it gave South Africa's bowlers something to work with, which is what the batsmen are there for, after all. "I'm glad that it gave us a chance to defend because at one stage we didn't think we'd get to 170," Duminy said. "I'm pretty happy with the innings but if Dale and the rest of the bowlers didn't produce something it wouldn't have meant anything." That it did will give South Africa confidence what they are doing with their batting line-up could work.

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Netherlands crash to lowest T20I total

A feast of cricket's guilty pleasures

The World T20 has been simmering during its qualifying round, but the big boys have descended and Bangladesh have almost made the Super 10. It's about to boil over

The Shoaib Malik question

No one can give a satisfactory answer about why he's in the side and what has happened to his supposed utility. Maybe the answer has to do with his captaincy stint

'It burnt to be told I didn't have the heart to play as a bowler'

Former fast bowler Dean Headley recalls good and bad days with England, his heritage, and the time he bounced Allan Donald and lived to tell the tale

The most sixes, and most successive fifties

Also, twin hundreds in South Africa, T20's leading run scorer and wicket-taker, and more on innings hoggers

Cricket-mad Nepal faces infrastructure challenges

Cricket's popularity is growing in Nepal but the country faces problems of infrastructure and the lack of a first-class competition

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