IPL-bound Anrich Nortje happy to fight for his place in the Proteas team under Conrad

As much as the Proteas wanted to keep the focus on Wednesday’s all-important fourth T20I in Lucknow (start 3.30pm) to stay alive in the five-match series, their attention kept being pulled towards the IPL auction. 

Delhi Capitals purchased Proteas finisher David Miller for approximately R3.68million, while fast bowler Anrich Nortje went for the same price to Lucknow Super Giants. It just so happened that Nortje was conducting the pre-match press engagement as the bid padel was raised for him by LSG.

"This is news to me," Nortje said, after finding out that the capital of India's Uttar Pradesh state would be his new home. "I'll see you guys soon then. I'm very happy."

Nortje would certainly be relieved that he was able to land another IPL deal after playing only two IPL matches last season, and eight overall the last two years due to a variety of injuries. He has also not played in the Betway SA20 since Season 1 and only made his comeback to international cricket for the Proteas for the first time during this on-going India series since the ICC T20 World Cup final in Barbados 18 months ago. 

The comeback has not yielded a single wicket as yet in the two matches he played in Cuttack and Dharamsala, but he was pushing the speed gun up to 150km/h signalling the fact that he has importantly not lost any of his X-factor pace. 

"It's nice to be back, I really missed it and really enjoying my time here," Nortje said.

"I'm sort of happy with the progress. There's still a lot of cricket to play. For me, it's just to try and focus game by game, day by day, and just try and get better every day but I've really been enjoying the time back and it's been great to be with the team."

But much like Quinton de Kock’s return from the international wilderness, Proteas coach Shukri Conrad has not made any promises to Nortje about a starting spot – or even a place in next year’s T20 World Cup squad – and that it will all be performance based, especially with the plethora of pace options at Conrad’s disposal. 

"With a new coach and how he's been going about things, it seems to be going really well," Nortje said.

"I'm happy to be here. The team's been doing unbelievably well the last year or two. 

“There's some fresh faces, there's some old faces and guys have been sort of on the fringes for a while, are getting to play more cricket more consistently. 

"There's a lot of competition as well, which creates opportunity and also creates a little bit of pressure for guys in the team, which is good. It's what you want.

"That's something that's built up over the last year or two and it just puts guys under pressure, and a lot of guys have to fight for a spot, which is great. All in all, it's just a lot of things coming together.”

Nortje will therefore be hoping to deliver an impressive performance in front of not only his new IPL owners on Thursday, but also for his long-term ambitions of returning to India for the T20 World Cup next year. 

SQUADS FOR LUCKNOW

Proteas: Aiden Markram (captain), Ottneil Baartman, Corbin Bosch, Dewald Brevis, Quinton de Kock, Donovan Ferreira, Reeza Hendricks, Marco Jansen, Keshav Maharaj, George Linde, Lutho Sipamla, David Miller, Lungi Ngidi, Anrich Nortje, Tristan Stubbs.

India: Suryakumar Yadav (captain), Shubman Gill, Abhishek Sharma, Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Jitesh Sharma (wk), Sanju Samson, Jasprit Bumrah, Varun Chakaravarthy, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav, Harshit Rana, Washington Sundar