South Africa chose to bowl vs Ireland
In the spin department, South Africa threw all their options: left-arm spinner Bjorn Fortuin, legspinner Nqaba Peter and occasional offspinner and captain Aiden Markram. That left them with a fairly long tail with the allrounders starting with Mulder at No. 6, but they have included all three opening batters available. Reeza Hendricks and Ryan Rickelton were carded at No.1 and 2, with Matthew Breetzke in at No.3.
Asked to bat first, Ireland are without Andy Balbirnie for this series and had earlier pencilled in Lorcan Tucker to open the batting with Paul Stirling. He was not included in the XI after picking up an injury in training, Ross Adair given an opportunity in his place. Ireland also went spin-heavy and gave left-arm spinner Matthew Humphreys his second T20I cap, alongside George Dockrell and legspinner Ben White.
Ireland have never won a T20I against South Africa.
Ireland: 1 Paul Stirling, 2 Ross Adair, 3 Harry Tector, 4 Curtis Campher, 5 Neil Rock, 6 George Dockrell, 7 Mark Adair, 8 Fionn Hand, 9 Matthew Humphreys, 10 Craig Young, 11 Ben White
South Africa: 1 Ryan Rickelton (wk), 2 Reeza Hendricks, 3 Matthew Breetzke, 4 Aiden Markam, 5 Tristan Stubbs, 6 Wiaan Mulder, 7 Patrick Kruger, 8 Bjorn Fortuin, 9 Nqaba Peter, 10 Lizaad Williams, 11 Ottneil Baartman
