South African pacer Lungi Ngidi once had a very scary Indian experience. Back in 2015, he was in India for a Universities World Cup. The games were in Dehradun and that saw the teams taking the busy narrow hilly roads on most days. On one such trip, on the foothills of the Himalayas, the young “Gentle Giant” had a panic attack.
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On a visit to University of Pretoria (UP) during India’s tour to South Africa, one had heard that story. Blanche Conradie of UP’s sports department had shared Ngidi’s unnerving experience.
“It was a rare day, when the team’s tallest and broadest member, who loves to sleep, wanted to leave his room and go out. “We were in this bus on the hills with lots of hooting and honking around on the sinuous route with traffic jams. Lungi thought he was going to die and had a panic attack. He was screaming and going crazy, he lay on the floor of the bus because he couldn’t take it anymore,” said Conradie, who has been managing the cricket wing of TuksSports, the university’s sports department, both home and away since 2015.
The 6’4” young black pacer, son of domestic helps from Durban, who first went to school because of an anonymous benefactor, was a popular figure on the campus.
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Since that traumatic bus ride in Dehradun, the tables have turned. His Test debut was against India at Centurion. He took six wickets in an innings and was man of the match. And now at this very important World T20, he had the Indians on the hop.
On Sunday, as soon as the ball was given to Ngidi, Dale Steyn would remark on air that this pitch should suit him. It was the reason he replaced the left-arm wrist spinner Tabraiz Shamsie in the playing XI.
It didn’t take him long to show why. Rohit would mis-time the first ball just over cover but didn’t take much lessons from it. He would soon charge out, backing away a touch, but Ngidi didn’t panic: he hit that hard length hard. And Rohit tried to swipe-pull it across but that shot was hardly going to work on this tennis-ball bounce pitch.
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The ball just lobbed on the leg side for Ngidi to complete the catch and beam a big smile. He wasn’t done. Another hit-the-decker arrived, this time outside off stump, and despite the presence of slips, KL Rahul thought he could play a tame steer to third man. Mistake. He just sent it straight to the slip to continue his poor performances against proper pace. He also accounted for Virat Kohli and Hardik Pandya.
During his spell, Ngidi had gazed deeply into the Perth sky, like a philosopher searching for the deeper meanings of life. Here, though, he had bounced out the best of India’s batsmen and, in a sense, found profound meaning of the night. He then folded his hands, as a thanksgiving gesture, and smiled reluctantly before he was swarmed by his colleagues.
On all four instances he picked up a wicket, his celebrations were muted. When he ejected Rohit Sharma, he just stopped in his follow through and mechanically threw the ball back to the umpire. He offered regular handshakes with his chums, as if nothing had happened. KL Rahul’s scalp was met with an apologetic smile. When he nailed Hardik Pandya with another short ball, he produced a sardonic smile. Of all the virtues that the Zulu-speaking pacer demonstrated, level-headedness shone the brightest.
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Someone by the same name almost won a World Cup for South Africa, will this Zulu finally take South Africa all the way? A proper Protea.
