Perth: South Africa pacer Lungi Ngidi revealed that the Proteas were looking to cramp India for room bowling the hard lengths, which worked well in their favour.
Ngidi was brought into the Group 2 match in Super 12s of Men’s T20 World Cup at Perth Stadium in place of left-arm wrist-spinner Tabraiz Shamsi to exploit the pace and bounce offered by the pitch, which was also pointed out by South Africa fast bowling legend Dale Steyn on-air.
The six feet-four inches right-arm fast bowler justified his inclusion into the playing eleven by taking out Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Virat Kohli and Hardik Pandya with pace, extra bounce and hitting the hard lengths very hard to pick fantastic figures of 4/29 in his four overs, including ten dot balls at an economy rate of 5.7.
“We know they would want to use our pace, so we tried to keep our lines straight. Cramping them (for room) while bowling hard lengths was the plan. Tuck them down for room, perhaps one or two got away,” said Ngidi in a mid-innings chat with the broadcasters.
As per data analytics site Cricviz, only 13 per cent of balls bowled by South Africa in the first innings were fuller than 5m — the lowest percentage for any team in any innings in the ongoing tournament.
On a chilly evening at Perth, Ngidi was breathing fire in becoming the wrecker-in-chief of India’s innings. While Rohit, Kohli and Pandya perished while playing the pull shot, Rahul was sucked into playing a regulation nick to slip.
“I have played here before, so I knew what lengths to bowl. I think against a team like India, you need to dismiss them to a low total, early wickets were the key for us. The height worked in our favour, some bounced a bit, it was always expected at Perth though and I’m really happy with our lengths,” he added.
Ngidi signed off by hoping South Africa chase down 134. “The score is very much gettable. Happy to restrict them at 133. Need to follow our blueprint while batting and we will chase this.”
(IANS)
