I'm willing to take risks to take wickets, says Proteas Player of the Match Lungi Ngidi

Proteas seamer Lungi Ngidi says he is willing to risk it all to take wickets in the Powerplay.

The 29-year-old has been the cornerstone of the Proteas T20 attack recently, continuing his good form from the recent series in India where he led the attack in the absence of the injured Kagiso Rabada with aplomb.

But even with Rabada back in the Proteas saddle now, Ngidi once again showed off his skills by capturing 4/31 to drive Aiden Markram’s team to a comfortable 57-run victory over Canada at the ICC T20 World Cup in Ahmedabad. 

Ngidi started with a bang, by having Canada captain Dilpreet Bajwa caught behind first ball of the run chase, after the Proteas had posted a commanding 213/4. 

The big fast bowler picked up two further wickets in the Powerplay to have Canada wobbling on 26/3 after three overs. 

And to further illustrate his range of skills, Ngidi returned at the death to bring a close to a 69-run partnership for the fifth wicket between Navneet Dhaliwal (64 off 49 balls) and Harsh Thaker (33 off 29 balls).

“Look, I think it's the fact that I have to find a way to take wickets. I'm willing to take those risks,” said Ngidi, who was named Player of the Match.

“Yeah, sometimes they go for boundaries, but bowling those risky balls sometimes pay off and they end up in the wickets column. 

“So that's pretty much the way I play the T20 game and I'm just looking to keep doing more of the same.”

Ngidi admitted that it was a difficult task to face a Canadian batting unit that the Proteas have never encountered before, which caused the bowlers and skipper Markram to create plans on the night.

“Yeah, that's actually one of the things that we struggled with,” he said. 

“It's the gameplans for guys that you haven't seen much of. So it was trial and error as we were going. And I think as you could see, some of the balls would go for boundaries and then we kind of shift and we have a chat in the middle and then try something different.

“In the end, up front, it was pretty simple with the new ball. But once the game got further on, it was pretty much trial and error all the way to the end.”

The Proteas have another night game at the same venue against New Zealand on Saturday evening, and Ngidi and the rest of the bowling unit certainly learnt a great lesson about the dew factor that hampers the bowlers.

“It (dew) did have a bit of impact,” he said. “You could see once you bowled a touch fuller, it would sort of just slide on. The slow balls were still holding up a little bit.

“But yeah, the ball did seem to be sliding on a bit better and they connected a few pretty well, which kind of let us know that, OK, it is playing a bit of an effect. The challenge for them was always going to be pace.”

Ngidi and the rest of the Proteas only have a couple of days before their next game against Afghanistan on Wednesday (11am SAST start).