Dream debut for Ngidi as Proteas clinch series against India
Young Titans star Lungi Ngidi has made a dream debut in Test cricket on his home ground in Centurion and he played a huge part in the team's 135 run victory in the second Test against India.
Lungi Ngidi took six wickets in an innings – and four of the last seven on the final day – to lead the Proteas to victory over India by 135 runs in the second Test match at SuperSport Park on Wednesday.
The Test match was over when Jasprit Bumrah (2) became Ngidi’s sixth victim (caught by Vernon Philander) and India was all bowled out for 151 runs in their second innings.
This victory also enabled the Proteas to take an unbeatable 2-0 lead in the series with only the final match left to be played at the Wanderers Stadium in Johannesburg from next Wednesday.
Ngidi’s return of 6/39 was the seventh best by a South African on debut and the 27th best on the all-time list. In all the young Titans star only bowled 26.2 overs in the match for his 7 wickets which gave him an incredible strike rate of a wicket every 22.5 balls.
At the other end of the statistical scale Cheteshwar Pujara became the 23rd player, the first Indian player and the first for 18 years to be run out in both innings of the same Test match.
India realized from the outset that their only chance of pulling off an unlikely victory and keep the series alive was to go for their shots and they went down bravely.
The Proteas were up for the challenge and produced an incredible display of outfielding which included the run out of Pujara and stunning catches by Morné Morkel and AB de Villiers. De Villiers is more or less expected to take chances of that sort but to watch Morkel galloping around the boundary like a thoroughbred champion and then diving full length was something else altogether.
Rohit Sharma made top score of 47 off 74 balls before falling to that De Villiers catch.
It was a highly encouraging sign of South Africa’s long-term future that two bowlers with a combined age of 43 took all nine wickets that fell to bowlers in India’s second innings.
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