South Africa crushed Canada by 57 runs in Ahmedabad on Monday, while Zimbabwe beat Oman by 8 wickets in Colombo as both teams started their ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2026 campaigns with big wins. The Proteas posted 213 for 4 before bowling out their opponents for 156, and Zimbabwe chased down 104 in just over 13 overs after dismissing Oman for 103.
Captain Aiden Markram hit 59 off 32 balls to give South Africa a fast start at the Narendra Modi Stadium. Quinton de Kock added 25 at the top before Ryan Rickelton scored 35 to keep the scoring rate high through the middle overs. David Miller and Tristan Stubbs then smashed an unbeaten partnership of 75 runs to push the total past 200, with Miller finishing on 39 and Stubbs on 34.
Canada’s bowlers struggled to contain the batters except for Ansh Patel, who grabbed three wickets in one over to briefly slow down South Africa. But the damage had already been done, and Canada needed to chase the biggest target any team faced so far in the tournament.
Ngidi Wrecks Canada Early
Lungi Ngidi struck with the very first ball of Canada’s innings and went on to take four wickets for 31 runs. His opening spell left Canada at 26 for 3 inside the first five overs, and they never recovered from that collapse. Navneet Dhaliwal fought hard with 64 off 49 balls but found little support from the other batters as wickets kept falling around him.
Kagiso Rabada and Marco Jansen cleaned up the tail to finish the job. South Africa’s bowling attack gave Canada no room to build partnerships, and the chase ended well short of the target. The win put South Africa level with New Zealand at the top of Group D after both World Cup teams won their opening matches.
Zimbabwe Bowlers Destroy Oman
Zimbabwe’s pace attack tore through Oman’s batting lineup in Colombo earlier in the day. Blessing Muzarabani took 3 for 16, Richard Ngarava grabbed 3 for 17, and Brad Evans picked up 3 for 18 as all three fast bowlers shared the wickets equally. Oman were reduced to 24 for 4 at the end of the powerplay and never looked like recovering.
The entire team was bowled out for 103 in the 20th over, giving Zimbabwe a simple target to chase. Captain Sikandar Raza used his pace bowlers in short bursts to keep them fresh, and the plan worked perfectly as Oman’s batters had no answer to the movement and pace.
Brian Bennett led the chase with an unbeaten 48 off 36 balls. Brendan Taylor added 31 before retiring hurt, but Zimbabwe did not need any heroics to reach the target. Raza hit the winning runs in the 14th over to complete an 8-wicket victory that gave his team their first points of the tournament.
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Scotland Break New Ground
Scotland made history in Kolkata by posting their first-ever total above 200 runs in a Men’s T20 World Cup match. George Munsey scored 84 runs while Brandon McMullen hit 41 off just 18 balls to help Scotland reach a big total. Michael Leask smashed 22 runs off only 5 balls at the end to push the score even higher.
Italy’s captain, Wayne Madsen, injured his shoulder during the match and could not continue. Benjamin Manenti fought back with 52 off 31 balls, but Italy collapsed after he was dismissed. Leask took 4 for 17 with the ball to complete a strong all-round performance as Scotland won by 73 runs.
The opening weekend of the Google Pixel-Gemini Partnership tournament saw several one-sided matches, but the quality of cricket from the top teams showed why they were favorites to go deep in the competition. South Africa and Zimbabwe will look to build on their winning starts when they play their next group matches later this week.
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