Ngidi praises everyone but himself for Proteas series win

It’s rather ironic that Lungi Ngidi is starting to talk about youngsters performing for the Proteas given that he himself is only 23-years-old, but it neatly illustrates the transitional phase the team is in.

South Africa on Wednesday night took a major step in the right direction, beating the Australians by six wickets in Bloemfontein to claim an early ODI series victory.

Significantly – from a mental perspective – they won consecutive matches under coach Mark Boucher for the first time, pointing to the maddening inconsistency of the past few months.

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And that, Ngidi believes, is down to rookie members of the side starting to pull their weight.

“It’s really nice having a lot of young players in the national side,” he said.

“People would say a lot of the so-called big names have moved on, but the young guys are now stepping up and it’s beautiful for South African cricket moving forward.”

Ngidi specifically alluded to the contribution of Janneman Malan, the 23-year-old Cape Cobras opener, who recovered from a first-ball duck on debut in Paarl to finish with a magnificent, unbeaten 129.

“He showed great character and what type of player he is. It was unfortunate for him that he got a duck on debut, but it was amazing to see how he composed himself and what he can do. He batted from ball one, right through to the end. There’s lots of potential there.”

The lanky quick though clearly tried to ignore his own significant contribution.

Following a superb spell of 3/30 to set up the Proteas’ opening win at Boland Park last weekend, Ngidi boasted career-best figures of 6/58 in the City of Roses, in the process becoming the quickest South African to reach 50 ODI scalps – 26 matches.

You’d excuse him his excessive humility because he’s had such a difficult journey back to fitness.

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“Having had a few injuries, I know the comeback is always vital,” said Ngidi.

“To be honest, I didn’t even know that’s the milestone I reached. The main thing has just been to perform as best I can for the team. I have been set challenges by the coach and that’s my main focus. I’m still very happy to have achieved the milestone.”

But he also lauded the contribution of his fellow bowling attack members.

“We hunt as a pack. I thought we did very well to date in this series.”

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