Correcting ‘silly errors’ will be key against Black Caps, says Proteas bowler Ngidi

If they can tighten up in some areas, the Proteas have the ability to lift the T20 International tri-series title in Harare this weekend, according to seam bowler Lungi Ngidi.

Though they won both their games against hosts Zimbabwe in the round robin stage of the series, the under-strength SA team lost both their matches against the Black Caps.

However, they will have another chance to face New Zealand in the series final on Saturday (starting at 1.30pm).

“We’ve played some good cricket but we’ve made silly errors against New Zealand when we’ve played against them,” Ngidi said on Friday.

“So we do know it’s possible. We just need to pretty much perfect our game in terms of how to go about it, but whoever rocks up on the day the best is probably going to come out on top.”

Potential confidence boost

While they were not looking too far ahead, Ngidi felt a win over New Zealand in the series decider would give the national squad (missing some key senior players) a big boost in the build-up to the T20 World Cup to be held in India and Sri Lanka in February next year.

“Obviously that’s the bigger picture but there’s always a process leading up to that. You look at it one game at a time and you fix the errors that you can now, along the way, before the big show,” Ngidi said.

“The most important thing the coach (Shukri Conrad) has told us is to not look too far ahead and face the challenges that are currently in front of us.

“To be able to come out on top against almost a full-strength New Zealand team, and we’ve got a couple of youngsters here, that will be a massive positive for us going forward.”