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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Bowlers, Paliwal take North Zone into final

North Zone 265 for 7 (Paliwal 107*, Gurkeerat 77, Vinay Kumar 3-57) beat South Zone 165 (Nair 51*, Harbhajan 3-35, Rasool 3-15) by 100 runs
Scorecard

An unbeaten century from Rajat Paliwal and a strong bowling performance led by Harbhajan Singh and Parvez Rasool helped North Zone march into the final of the Deodhar Trophy with a 100-run win over South Zone.

Put in to bat, North Zone lost Gautam Gambhir early and were struggling at 63 for 4, before Paliwal and Gurkeerat Singh Mann added a 151-run stand to set the base for a challenging score. After Gurkeerat was out for 77, Paliwal stepped up the run-scoring, reaching his third List A hundred to propel North Zone to 265 for 7.

In reply, B Aparajith and Robin Uthappa gave South Zone a safe, sedate start, adding 72 for the first wicket. However, Rishi Dhawan and Ishant Sharma combined to dismiss the South Zone top order, as Aparajith, Uthappa and KL Rahul fell within three overs. The middle order, too, failed to push the chase along as Dinesh Karthik, Sanju Samson and Manish Pandey were out cheaply, falling to the spin pair of Harbhajan and Rasool. That left Karun Nair with a tough target and the tail-end, and the batsman responded with a fighting fifty off 57 balls, including two sixes. His innings, however, was too late in the day for South Zone, who were out for 165 in the 37th over.

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Patchy India lose to Sri Lanka by 22 runs

Sri Lanka Women 128 for 8 (Atapattu 43, Yadav 2-20) beat India Women 106 for 9 (Pandey 22, Prabodhani 2-9) by 22 runs
Scorecard

A poor batting performance from India Women saw them lose their opening game of the World Twenty20 against Sri Lanka Women by 22 runs, after their bowlers did well to restrict the opposition to 128.

India lost Smriti Mandhana in the second over and were always struggling for impetus in their innings. Like Sri Lanka, only three of their top six batsmen managed to score at more than a run-a-ball but the difference between the sides was that India's run-scoring in the latter stages of their innings slumped due to wickets. Mithali Raj did not have a great start in her new role at the top of the order, scoring 16 off 23 balls. Jhulan Goswami promoted to No 4 also failed to add any momentum to the innings and by the halfway stage, India were 57 for 3 with the required run rate over 7.

Sri Lanka struck in successive overs between the 16th and 19th, putting an end to any hopes India had of a late flourish. Udeshika Prabodhani was the pick of the bowlers with miserly figures of 2 for 9 in her four overs.

Earlier, India's bowlers did well to stifle partnerships as Sri Lanka were restricted to 128. The most substantial stands of their innings were 29 and 31 for the third and fourth wickets respectively and opener Chamari Atapattu was involved in both. Her 44-ball 43 anchored the early part of Sri Lanka's innings and the side was given a push at the end by Eshani Lokusuriyage, who hit 34 off 29 balls.

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South Africa openers set up thumping win

South Africa Women 163 for 0 (van Niekerk 90*, Lee 67*) beat Pakistan Women 119 for 9 (Dar 32, Abidi 28, Kapp 3-16) by 44 runs
Scorecard

South Africa Women's openers Dane van Niekerk and Lizelle Lee shared an unbroken 163-run opening stand, setting Pakistan Women a target that eventually proved well out of their reach.

Pakistan Women failed to strike even once after putting South Africa in to bat as Lee and van Niekerk put behind a quiet opening to push up the scoring rate in the second half of the innings. Lee was unbeaten on 67 off 55 balls with eight fours and a six, while her partner van Niekerk ended on 90 off 66 balls with 13 fours and a six.

In reply, a 48-run partnership for the third wicket between Nain Abidi and Nida Dar rallied Pakistan's innings after two early setbacks. Both batsmen were dismissed in successive overs, however, and their wickets allowed South Africa to stifle the scoring, effectively denying Pakistan any impetus. Marizanne Kapp took 3 for 16 and was well aided by fellow fast bowler Shabnim Ismail (2-20) and legspinner Suné Luus (2-18).

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West Indies shackled by swing and spin

West Indies have often started slowly before, but this time their big-hitters weren't allowed to open out when the innings prospered

In Twenty20 cricket, West Indies are often known to start slowly with the bat and look to preserve wickets, banking on their big hitters to make up with rapid scoring later in the innings. Against India, their openers began slowly yet again, but this time it might not have been entirely out of choice. India bowled beautifully with the new ball. Bhuvneshwar Kumar, in particular, swung the ball both ways and will wonder how he ended up with no wickets.

Against this sort of bowling, the openers struggled to put bat to ball. Bhuvneshwar had Dwayne Smith tied down for 15 deliveries, conceding just one run. Chris Gayle faced three deliveries from the medium-pacer, taking just a single. That is 18 deliveries within the Powerplay that brought West Indies three runs, which included a wide.

Having just watched impressive young batsmen like Umar Akmal and Glenn Maxwell enliven the Sunday afternoon, the Mirpur crowd had been waiting to see how Gayle and Smith, established T20 stars, would go about attacking the Indian bowlers. Instead, they got to see a struggle.

West Indies' run rate didn't go up by all that much even after Bhuvneshwar went out of the attack. It didn't help them that Gayle was run out just when he was starting to warm up, having hit Mohammed Shami and Amit Mishra for sixes over wide-ish long on.

But those two blows were all West Indies could muster, and you sensed that previous successes with a go-slow strategy at the start may have been at the back of the batsmen's minds. There was no attempt to go after the Indian bowlers, and even Suresh Raina managed to get through two quiet overs.

West Indies captain Darren Sammy gave credit to Bhuvneshwar for bowling 16 dot balls in the Powerplay overs. He did say, though, that West Indies would need to play the spinners with much more authority.

"I think credit must go to the opening bowler," Sammy said. "Kumar swung the ball both ways and bowled in good areas. He kept two of the most dangerous batsmen in world cricket quiet. There is no need to panic for us, it is just one wrong.

"We have three more games left, and we back ourselves to win them. I think we just didn't respond well enough to their spinners. We have a strong feeling that we will meet again, and we are looking forward to that."

India wouldn't have dreamt up a start like this but Suresh Raina did say in the pre-match press conference that West Indies bank more on hitting sixes rather than rotating the strike. This probably is an off-shoot of their usual strategy to start slowly and look for big hits in the later overs. This happened in the 2012 World T20 as well, both in the semi-final against Australia and the final against Sri Lanka.

In the semi-final, Gayle exploded after starting slowly in the first 10 overs while in the final, Marlon Samuels played one of the greatest innings in this format to bail them out. On both occasions, one batsman made it big while others contributed with rapid runs in the end overs.

That didn't happen today. They lost too many wickets in the middle overs, so they never got any momentum going. Their start, thanks to Bhuvneshwar, was even slower than it normally would have been.

Lendl Simmons and Sunil Narine hit three sixes in the last over while Andre Russell hit one in the 18th over. West Indies' average RPO in the first six overs is 6.95, but it was exactly 4.00 in this game. They came close to matching their average RPO of the last five overs in this game, but fell short of a competitive total.

What all of this showed was wickets in hand usually helps for a final push. Today West Indies neither had wickets, nor the runs at the start.

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