Africa-Press – South-Africa. Whether his teammates follow suit is another question, but Lungi Ngidi won’t be afraid to experiment in the Proteas attack’s quest to topple a dangerous English batting order when their three-match ODI series commences in Chester-le-Street on Tuesday.
The world champions have continued to employ their highly aggressive and successful strategy of pursuing runs at all cost, a blueprint that went a long way towards securing a first World Cup title in 2019, though India’s recent 50-over series victory over them has intriguingly revealed some chinks in the armour.
While England were merely undone by a stunning spell from Jasprit Bumrah in the opening match, the deciding encounter was characterised by the Indian bowlers fighting fire with fire.
Instead of focusing on containment, they struck at regular intervals, embodying the wisdom that wickets are the best way of stemming the flow of runs.
Bowling England out for 259 in the 46th over perfectly illustrated the approach.
Ngidi, entrusted with being South Africa’s bowling spearhead in the absence of the rested Kagiso Rabada, has clearly been taking notes.
“I think the main thing is that batters are sort of used to bowlers just bowling one pace and being able to get into a momentum by freeing the arms up and hitting through the line,” he said.
“I just think a cutter or a slow ball upfront does check that swing a bit and obviously stops that momentum so it’s not just free flowing.
“It’s more of a mental game with batters, especially, if you can disguise it well, and you can hit a good length with it. It’s not really a ball that you can get away.
“It’s one ball that I have practised well, and I use it a lot, so I don’t see why not use it in the powerplay if I can.”
Such thoughts should provide comfort to observers who are wary of the Proteas’ true ability to stand up against relentless stroke-makers like Jonny Bairstow, Jason Roy, Liam Livingstone, Moeen Ali and captain Jos Buttler.
Because everyone knows what’s coming, at least from England.
“We are obviously playing towards a tempo that we know that we’re gonna have to play against these guys. They do put bowling lineups under pressure, and I think that’s their go-to plan,” said Ngidi.
Proteas stand-in skipper Keshav Maharaj, however, argues that there’s still room for moderation, especially in light of Bumrah’s demolition job at Lord’s in conducive conditions.
“We continually see what England’s approach is, which is to play positively,” he said.
“If conditions allow us to be a bit more aggressive, then so be it. But if it doesn’t, we’re going to have to be smart in the way we marshal ourselves and combat England.
“In the end, assessment is key. Check out the pitch and overhead conditions and then we can determine ways to counter their batters.”
Ngidi certainly wouldn’t mind some seamer-friendly environments.
“We’ve seen the conditions now, the weather as well, lots of cloud cover overhead. The ball seems to be moving around a bit. Obviously that gives us a lot of confidence as the bowlers, you know, judging from what we saw in the warmup games any assistance we can get is gonna be useful,” he said.
“I reckon it should be some really good cricket. The wickets are all good batting wickets, but the plan is to get early wickets and put their batting lineup under pressure.
“I think everyone’s pretty much mentally ready for the first game. We know what England is going to bring, so we definitely are gonna have to raise our intensity to that level to make sure it’s a good game.”
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