Lungi Ngidi and Kagiso Rabada has dovetailed well for the Proteas during the ongoing T20 World Cup.
Image: AFP
For years, Kagiso Rabada was the Proteas' answer to the Chicago Bulls’ Michael Jordan — the team’s heartbeat and its most lethal weapon. He is the go-to guy when the game is on the line, and more often than not, Rabada — just like MJ — comes up trumps in the clutch moments. But even "Air Jordan" came up short on occasion.
"I've missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six times, I've been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed," Jordan once said.
It was these words that Rabada — an avid basketball fan himself — would have clung to after enduring a horrid final over against Afghanistan during a group match of the ongoing ICC T20 World Cup. Rabada overstepped the no-ball line not once, but inexplicably twice. The first no-ball offered Noor Ahmad a reprieve after he was caught in the covers.
He also sent down a wide and suffered the ignominy of being hit for six by a tailender before recovering to run out the last man, Fazalhaq Farooqi, to force the game into a Super Over.
The Proteas ultimately prevailed after two stressful Super Overs — bowled by Lungi Ngidi and Keshav Maharaj — which preserved their unbeaten record. They have since secured qualification for the semi-finals ahead of their last Super Eights match against Zimbabwe on Sunday, 1 March 2026.
"Yeah, I'm glad we won that game," Rabada said after the nine-wicket victory over the West Indies in Ahmedabad. "Otherwise, I would have blamed myself for sure. On the positive side, I made it interesting. But, yeah, if we had lost that game, I think I would have taken it quite heavily, to be honest.
"But that's just the game of cricket. You think about it and you're like, 'Oh, how many times does it actually go for you? And how many times does it not?' More often than not, it goes for you. Unfortunately, this time it didn't. The most important thing is that we've been winning."
For every Jordan, there was also a Scottie Pippen at the Bulls — a world-class "sidekick" who did the heavy lifting that often went unnoticed, yet possessed the brilliance to seize centre stage whenever the stars aligned.
Step up, Lungi Ngidi. With eleven wickets in the competition, Ngidi is placed third on the overall list and is now equal with Tabraiz Shamsi as the Proteas’ highest wicket-taker of all time in the shortest format. And unlike Jordan and Pippen, whose egos arguably prevented a deep friendship from blossoming, Rabada and Ngidi are each other’s "ride or die."
"I'm extremely happy for Lungs. He's a good friend of mine," Rabada said. "I feel like he's been under quite a lot of scrutiny over the past three to five years. That's what you have to deal with as an athlete.
"But I thought he responded incredibly well. Sometimes the territory we're in as cricketers is pretty brutal. When you're doing well, everyone reminds you of it, and when you're not, it feels twofold. So as an athlete, I'm incredibly proud of how he's actually turned that around for himself."
Ngidi has even honed a specific skill — his incredible slower-ball off-cutter — that Rabada has found hard to master. "No one can bowl that off-cutter slow ball that Lungs can. It's incredibly hard," Rabada admitted.
"Everyone asks him, 'What do you do?' and he's like, 'No, it's really simple.' But it's difficult. Everyone has their own individual strengths that they bring to the game."
Although Rabada has admittedly not been at his best up to this point, there were signs during the West Indies clash that he was inching closer to peak form. Not only did he double his tournament wicket tally to four within a couple of balls against the Windies, but he also rediscovered his ability to dismiss big players, like the in-form Shimron Hetmyer.
This bodes well for the Proteas as they head into the knockout stages, where captain Aiden Markram will undoubtedly look to his X-factor talisman to deliver something special when it is most needed.
But in typical Rabada fashion, he is taking it all in his stride. "All we're going to do is try our best," he concluded. "Trying doesn't make you a loser, you know."