Kolkata: Fast bowler Matt Henry has returned to New Zealand’s playing eleven as captain Mitchell Santner won the toss and elected to bowl first against South Africa in the first semi-final of 2026 Men’s T20 World Cup at the Eden Gardens on Wednesday.
The winner of this clash will qualify for the final to be played at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on Sunday. South Africa have won in all five of their previous meetings against New Zealand in the competition’s history.
The sides, however, have never faced each other in the knockout stages of the tournament. In 50-over ICC events, New Zealand hold the edge by winning a quarter-final and two semi-finals over South Africa.
Apart from Henry, who linked up with the team after the birth of his second child, Santner said Jimmy Neesham is back in for Ish Sodhi. “The pitch looked pretty good the other night. We know they are a great outfit and we know we gotta be on, we need to do our thing, put them under pressure and see what happens,” he said.
South Africa skipper Aiden Markram said Kagiso Rabada, Marco Jansen and Keshav Maharaj are back after being rested from their final Super Eights clash against Zimbabwe, which they won by five wickets in New Delhi.
“Everyone contributed at some stage which is really pleasing. Hopefully we can start well with the bat and put a good score on the board. We trained here last night and putting runs on the board in a knock-out game is not the worst thing,” he said.
In their pitch report, Pommie Mbangwa and Aaron Finch said the square boundaries are at 62 and 66 metres, with the straight boundary at 74 metres. They also observed a couple of cracks are visible along the off-stump line for right-handed batters, which may cause some movement early on and lead to inconsistent bounce with the new ball.
They also reckoned once the shine wears off, the pitch, which was used for the India-West Indies Super Eights clash, is expected to play true. Finch added that the groundsman told him there was minimal dew in the previous match and more of it is likely to come on the field for Wednesday’s knockout clash.
Playing XIs:
New Zealand: Tim Seifert (wk), Finn Allen, Rachin Ravindra, Glenn Phillips, Mark Chapman, Daryl Mitchell, James Neesham, Mitchell Santner (captain), Cole McConchie, Matt Henry, and Lockie Ferguson
South Africa: Aiden Markram (captain), Quinton de Kock (wk), Ryan Rickelton, Dewald Brevis, David Miller, Tristan Stubbs, Marco Jansen, Corbin Bosch, Kagiso Rabada, Keshav Maharaj, and Lungi Ngidi
(IANS)
