T20 World Cup: Canada opt to field first against South Africa
February 9, 2026 06:35 pm
Canada captain Dilpreet Bajwa won the toss and elected to field first against South Africa in the ninth game of the 2026 T20 World Cup in Ahmadabad.
South Africa opted for four fast bowlers and one spinner, Keshav Maharaj, with Corbin Bosch preferred to Anrich Nortje and Kwena Maphaka while Tristan Stubbs is selected at No 6 ahead of Jason Smith.
Although there has yet to be an upset victory over the course of the first two days every match between test-playing nations and Associate nations has been far closer than expected with India being pushed hard by the USA, Sri Lanka struggling past Ireland and England scraping home by just four-runs against Nepal.
Canada are not among the strongest of the Associates but captain Aiden Markram is taking nothing for granted, saying before the match, “The gap is getting smaller all the time between the major teams and the so-called smaller teams so we’ve done our home work on them and hopefully we are prepared.”
Playing XI:
South Africa: Quinton de Kock (wk), Aiden Markram (capt), Ryan Rickelton, Dewald Brevis, David Miller, Tristan Stubbs, Marco Jansen, Corbin Bosch, Kagiso Rabada, Keshav Maharaj, Lungi Ngidi
Canada: Dilpreet Bajwa (capt), Yuvraj Samra, Navneet Dhaliwal, Nicholas Kirton, Shreyas Movva, Harsh Thaker, Saad Bin Zafar, Jaskaran Singh, Dilon Heyliger, Kaleem Sana, Ansh Patel
