England fly to Sri Lanka today to begin the defence of their World Twenty20 title, with captain Stuart Broad boosted by a season-ending victory over South Africa that included an impressive debut from Danny Briggs.

Broad's side recorded a comfortable 28-run win against the Proteas at Edgbaston last night, helped by Briggs taking 1-16 from his two overs with the new ball oin jhis first Twenty20 international.

Poor weather meant the final game of the NatWest T20 series was reduced to just 11 overs per side, with eye-catching knocks from Craig Kieswetter (50 from 32 balls) and Jos Buttler (32 not out in 10) seeing the hosts to a winning score of 118 for five.

That ensured a difficult summer ended with a 1-1 draw in the shortest format and Broad left the scene in a positive frame of mind.

"To get on that flight with a win under our belt is brilliant," said Broad.

"It was awesome to see and a great confidence boost for the squad going to Sri Lanka.

"We've got eight of our World Twenty20 winners here and guys who are performing now, so I'm really excited about getting on that flight.

"We have some talent in this changing room. It's important we believe we can do good things and we've got that belief now."

Although Kieswetter top-scored in the match, Buttler's innings was the standout performance - a 15-minute cameo that contained three sixes and two boundaries.

Buttler's mixture of invention and aggression also contributed to Wayne Parnell conceding 32 in his final over - the second costliest over in Twenty20s at this level.

Broad, who tops that list after being taken for 36 by Yuvraj Singh in 2007, was suitably impressed.

"We knew we had hitters to come in and Jos played a game-changing innings," said Broad.

"We've seen this fella do it for Somerset time and time again so to see him do it in an England shirt was brilliant.

"It pretty much won us the game. We look for guys who can change the momentum of games and Jos really did win us the game.

"Going into the final three overs it looked like we needed a push and Jos got 32 in 10 balls. That would change most games."

Despite the efforts of Buttler and Kieswetter last night, defeated Proteas skipper AB de Villiers expects England's prospects in the coming weeks to centre around their attack.

"Their bowling line-up has been one of the best in the world for quite a few years now," he said.

"I thought they did really well when they won the tournament in the Caribbean; that was probably down to bowlers, who had an amazing tournament.

"They certainly have a lot of talent, but so do a lot of other teams."