The newly-minted 'Super Smash' Twenty20 tournament got under way in Hamilton yesterday.

On the eve of Australia’s match against West Indies, the rookie all-rounder James Faulkner, just six matches into his T20 career, said: “I don’t like them very much.”

This has been an odd series for Alastair Cook. The satisfaction of retaining the urn in his first Ashes encounter.

While the West Indies celebrated victory over NZ, beaten skipper Ross Taylor had that familiar empty feeling.

Andrew Alderson's five defining moments of NZ's super over defeat to the West Indies at cricket’s World T20.

Andrew Alderson's five defining moments of New Zealand’s defeat to England at cricket’s World T20.

A swashbuckling double century from opener Brendon McCullum saw a NZ 11 through to 342 for four at stumps on the first day of a three-day warm-up match against Pakistan at Whangarei today.

Mental hardness, or an apparent lack of it, was a key part of New Zealand's ODI drubbing by India says Mark Greatbatch.