The Proteas kicked off their T20 World Cup campaign with a 57-run thrashing of Canada in Ahmedabad on Monday.

After Canada won the toss and elected to field, South Africa smashed 47 off the last three overs to pile up 213-4, the highest total so far in this year’s T20 World Cup.

David Miller hit an unbeaten 39 off 23 balls and Tristan Stubbs was 34* off 19 as they put on an unbroken stand of 75 in 6.1 overs at the end.

Canada’s Navneet Dhaliwal was the only top-order batsman to offer any resistance, falling for 64 in the final over as Canada were restricted to 156-8 in reply.

Lungi Ngidi did the bulk of the damage for the Proteas, taking 4-31 from his four overs as their pace attack had Canada reeling at 45-4 during the powerplay.

Ngidi was named Man of the Match and said the evening dew had helped his variation.

AFRICA PICKS: Pakistan vs USA – T20 World Cup betting preview

“It did have a bit of an impact. You could see once you bowled a touch fuller, it would sort of just slide on. The slow balls were still holding up a little bit,” he said.

“We knew that obviously our attack brings pace, but for me, I feel like the variations are always the ones that catch people out.”

Quinton de Kock and captain Aiden Markram got the Proteas off to a flying start, putting on an opening stand of 70 in 6.5 overs.

De Kock was first to fall, for 25, bowled by a dipping off-spinner from Dilpreet Bajwa.

Markram sailed on and reached his fifty off 28 balls before falling for 59, caught in the deep after hitting 10 fours and a six.

Left-arm wrist-spinner Ansh Patel was the successful bowler and he enjoyed a fine spell, also removing Ryan Rickelton for a brisk 33 off 21 balls and Dewald Brevis for six.

Patel finished with 3-31 off his four overs after reducing South Africa from 125-1 to 138-4 before Miller and Stubbs took over.

Photo: @ProteasMenCSA/X