It’s been nine years since Lungi Ngidi made his international debut and it’s still worth wondering whether he’s lived up to expectations, merely matched or exceeded them.
Ngidi should have been un-droppable in that period. Instead he too often found himself a peripheral figure. Some of it was due to injury, but there was also less impact from him than the other quick bowlers available to the Proteas.
That was never more apparent than in the period since Shukri Conrad took over as Test coach. Ngidi played just twice, with Conrad making it clear he wasn’t happy with Ngidi’s conditioning and the fact that his bowling wasn’t up to par, specifically his pace.
Understandably there were question marks about his selection for the World Test Championship final — both in the squad and in the starting team. By then, however, Ngidi had shown Conrad how serious he was about Test cricket. Fitter and stronger, after a poor showing in the first innings, he delivered a match-changing nine-over spell at Lord’s that put the Proteas back in contention.
He remained a fixture in the limited-overs teams, but has not always been understood by viewers or even selectors. Two years ago, he wasn’t in the South African squad for the T20 World Cup, deemed only good enough to be on the standby list.
Yet for this year’s tournament Ngidi will be essential if the Proteas are going to lift the crown they so narrowly missed out on in Barbados, when the 29-year-old watched from the dugout.
It’s precisely because of the things he’s often criticised for that he may be more important than his good friend Kagiso Rabada or Anrich Nortje over the next four weeks.
As Ngidi mentioned after his player of the match performance against Canada on Monday night, he takes risks. “Sometimes you go for boundaries, but risky balls sometimes end up in the wickets column,” he said.
By that he meant the mixture of slower balls that have become his forte and which draw criticism when they go wrong. He is willing to gamble — and often has to — to succeed in a format so loaded in favour of batters.
Ngidi’s variety and his control thereof was excellent especially in the power play against Canada, where he picked up three of his four wickets. The television speedgun timed some of his early deliveries above the 140km/h mark, and later in that period — in which he bowled three overs — he dropped down to 120km/h or even less.
“I get a bit of bounce, present the seam well and then am able to bowl slower balls in the power play as well,” he said. “The guys never know what’s coming next, [you have to] keep them guessing but also be very accurate with the new ball.”
The Narendra Modi pitch, where South Africa played the first of three first-phase group matches, has different kinds of soil bases that favour either spin or seam. With the range of deliveries available to him — and the confidence he has in using them — Ngidi is ideally suited to a venue where batters often dominate.
It was notable how much Rabada, who’s been working on a new slower ball, and Marco Jansen were experimenting with their “change-ups” on Monday. The pressure created by Ngidi’s early success allowed room for that — and it will prove vital in the two crucial group matches against Afghanistan (Wednesday) and New Zealand on Saturday.
For Ngidi the next few weeks offer the opportunity to step clear of the shadow cast by Rabada, Nortje and Jansen. Often a forgotten component in the South African attack, this World Cup looms as one where Ngidi becomes the Proteas’ most important bowler and demonstrates why dropping him in the future would be a mistake.
Sunday Times
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