South Africa cruised to a convincing 57-run victory over Canada in the Group D encounter of the 2026 T20 World Cup at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.
Captain Aiden Markram’s 32-ball 59 helped the Proteas put up 213/4 on the scoreboard after being sent in to bat first.
Canada, 19th in the ICC T20I rankings, could only master 156/8 in their chase as Lungi Ngidi wreaked havoc with the ball, registering 4/31.
The Proteas began their innings in predictable fashion as captain Aiden Markram established himself as the early aggressor while Quinton de Kock took up the anchor role.
The duo batted fluently as world No. 5 South Africa posted 65 in powerplay. De Kock departed soon after as Canadian skipper Dilpreet Bajwa gave his team the first breakthrough.
Markram, meanwhile, continued to play his shots and brought up his 12th half-century in T20I cricket in just 28 balls.
The Proteas skipper managed to add nine more before being caught at the deep while trying to clear the ropes off Ansh Patel’s bowling in the 12th over.
Patel triggered Canadian celebrations again in the 14th over as he removed Ryan Rickelton and Dewald Brevis in quick succession to reduce South Africa to 138/4 from a comfortable 126/2.
However, unbeaten cameos by David Miller (39 off 23) and Tristan Stubbs (34 off 19) saw last edition’s finalists put on 75 runs in the last 37 balls to register the highest total in the T20 World Cup 2026 so far.
Canada’s chase got off to the worst start possible as captain Dilpreet Bajwa nicked one behind off Lungi Ngidi’s opening delivery.
Ngidi’s second over - the third of the innings - proved even more damaging as the South African pacer accounted for Yuvraj Samra and Nicholas Kirton within a span of three balls.
Kagiso Rabada cleaned up Shreyas Movva in the final over of powerplay to leave the Canadians reeling at 45/4.
Navneet Dhaliwal and Harsh Thaker ensured there was no collapse and put together a 69-stand. Ngidi returned to break the partnership by forcing Thaker to mistime one to deep third for 33.
The wicket took the wind out of Canada’s chase.
Despite Dhaliwal going on to score a commendable 49-ball 64 before succumbing in the final over, the Canadian innings limped to 156/8 in the allotted 20 overs.
South Africa will face Afghanistan at the same venue in their second 2026 T20 World Cup match on Wednesday.
- Agencies
