Sydney, Apr 7 : Australian Skipper Ricky Ponting has backed his openers Brad Haddin and Michael Clarke to bounce back and has publicly challenged himself to lift his game after being thrashed by South Africa in the second game of their one-day international series.

Australia were blown away by pace duo Wayne Parnell (4-25) and Dale Steyn (4-27) at Centurion as South Africa bowled the tourists out for 131 and scored 3-132 in 26.2 overs in reply.

London, Apr 7 : Kent skipper Rob Key has emerged as a front runner to be England's Twenty20 captain after Andrew Strauss was dramatically axed from the list of probables.

Key tops the list for World Twenty20 event because he is a sharp thinker, aggressive batsman and a respected leader, The Sun reported.

He has long been regarded as England captaincy material as Key led the A team in New Zealand this winter and takes charge of an MCC side, including Michael Vaughan against Durham at Lord's on Thursday.

Powered by a tidy bowling performance, South Africa registered a comprehensive seven wicket win over Australia in a crucial tie here on Sunday. With this win, South Africa has leveled the five-match one-day international (ODI) series at 1-1.

Batting first, the star-studded Aussie batting line-up started a disastrous start as they lost half of their side of mere 19 runs. From Australia, Callum Ferguson scored the highest 50 runs while Mitchell Johnson also contributed a useful 30 runs for the team. Both Ferguson and Johnson scored a crucial 63 runs partnership for the seventh wicket.

Yusuf Abdullah, the South African pace bowler, will be joining the King's XI Punjab squad to replace the injured West Indies pace bowler Jerome Taylor for the upcoming second season of the IPL.

Speaking on this, an elated Abdullah said, “I'm quite excited about the upcoming challenge. The IPL is in town and this is a good opportunity for me, hopefully I can do well.”

Wellington (New Zealand), Apr. 6: Indian cricketer and former captain Rahul Dravid has broken the world record for the most number of catches in test matches by an outfielder.

When Dravid helped to dismiss the New Zealand batsman, Tim McIntosh, in Wellington, it was his 182nd catch in a test career going back to 1996, reports the BBC.

Dravid''s landmark was reached on the fourth day of India''s third Test match against New Zealand at Wellington.

The previous record holder was Mark Waugh of Australia.

Wellington, Apr. 6 : Staring down the barrel of a 600-plus run chase in the third test against India, New Zealand coach Andy Moles has asked his batsmen to concentrate on saving the test on a playable pitch rather than trying to be heroes and win it.

The world record chase is 418-7 by the West Indies against Australia in Antigua in 2003 and New Zealand''s best is 324-5 against Pakistan in Christchurch in 1994.