Ahmedabad: Skipper Aiden Markram led from the front with a flamboyant half-century to guide South Africa to a formidable 213 for four against Canada in a Group D T20 World Cup match Monday.
Sent in to bat, Markram (59 off 32 balls) opened the floodgates with three boundaries off Dilon Heyliger in the second over.
Quinton de Kock (25 off 22 balls) followed suit, smashing Saad Bin Zafar for two consecutive fours, hitting the bowler over long-off.
The duo continued in the same fashion, picking up boundaries and sixes. They stitched 70 runs for the opening stand in just 6.5 overs.
South Africa were dealt the first blow in the form of De Kock as he was cleaned up by skipper and right-arm pacer Dilpreet Bajwa.
Markram was in ominous form as he brought up his fifty with a four off Bajwa in just 28 balls in the 10th over.
Ryan Rickelton too looked in great form as he smashed three fours and one six during his 21-ball 31-run knock.
Markram’s knock was finally cut short by left-arm spinner Ansh Patel, caught at long-on by Heyliger.
Soon after, Rickelton walked back to the pavilion, handing a straight-forward catch to Harsh Thaker at the rope off the bowling of Patel.
Dewald Brevis too failed to fire as four balls later he was holed out at mid-off by Nicholas Kirton in the same over to deal a double blow to South Africa.
Towards the end, veteran David Miller (39 not out off 23 balls) and Tristan Stubbs (34 off 19 balls) powered the Proteas to the big total with an unbeaten 75-run fifth-wicket partnership that came off just 37 balls.
Miller was at his best towards the end, nailing sixes at will.
Left-arm spinner Ansh Patel was the pick of the bowlers for Canada with figures of 3/31.