“Not that I wanted to get injured but I felt like I let the team down a bit,” - Lungi Ngidi on leaving the field during South Africa’s poor bowling performance against Bangladesh
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TELFORD VICE in Birmingham
IT was 20 years ago today. Not that Sergeant Pepper taught the band to play, but that Allan Donald and Lance Klusener forgot how to play. At least, they forget how to run between the wickets in the last, heartstopping moments of the 1999 World Cup semi-final against Australia.
And here we are, back at Edgbaston for another World Cup match against another antipodean side with another campaign in the balance.
South Africa’s game against New Zealand on Wednesday isn’t, officially, a knockout match.
But if Faf du Plessis’ team don’t win they will need a mad permutation of results in other encounters to go their way to reach the semis.
So, Claude Henderson, had any thought been given to the fact Monday marked 20 years to the day that Klusener called, Donald dithered, and the resultant runout tied the match and put the Aussies in the final and South Africa on the next plane home?
Henderson, South Africa’s spin consultant, cocked his head in mock surprise and said: “Was it that long ago?”
Besides, how can what happened then matter now — except to those who trace the echoing emptiness of South Africa’s trophy cabinet back to the horror end of that match?
They’re a long way from Birmingham and an even longer way from South Africa’s dressingroom, where the mood will have been lightened by Lungi Ngidi passing a fitness test on the hamstring he injured three-and-a-half matches ago.
“Injuries are never nice but with the support staff I’ve had around me, it’s been pretty decent,” Ngidi said. “Other than being off the field, I’ve been alright.”
Of his massive left leg, Ngidi said, “It’s 100%.”
He should know after a training session in which he came through a long spell of bowling unscathed and was then put through his paces in a series of sprints and movement drills by conditioning fundi Greg King.
“If you are not bowling at 100% then you are obviously not ready to play,” Ngidi said. “Today was as hard as I could go; match intensity.”
He limped off after bowling four overs against Bangladesh at the Oval on June 2. Since then he has watched from the sidelines as South Africa, who had gone down to England in the tournament opener, have lost to Bangladesh and to India, endured a washout against West Indies, and beaten Afghanistan.
Being beaten by England and India was if not expected then acceptable for this South Africa team. Being beaten by Bangladesh certainly was not.
Had they won that match, as they should have done, they would have been in a significantly more favourable position — fifth on the log, a point behind England.
It wouldn’t be fair to wonder whether, had Ngidi not left the field when he did, Bangladesh would have roared to 330/6, their record one-day total and the foundation of their 21-run triumph. But it had to be wondered, anyway …
“On that day we [bowled] a lot shorter than we should have. That happens.
“Credit to them, they took advantage of that and were able to post a decent total and defend it.
“With me going off I didn’t bowl my full quota of overs and someone had to fill that in, so that didn’t work in our favour.
“Not that I wanted to get injured but I felt like I let the team down a bit.
“We probably should have still tried as best as we could to restrict them to under 300 but it happens; it’s cricket. On the day they were better than us and they won the game.
“We could have tested their techniques a lot more. We bombarded them with a lot of short balls and that’s what they expected. In a way, it might have played into their hands.
“But we know what our strengths are and we are going to stick to those. We are fast bowlers — there’s no way we are not going to bowl short.”
He went for 34 runs, 13 of them in his fourth over, when Tamim Iqbal and Soumya Sarkar hammered him for three fours to take Bangladesh to 50 without loss after seven overs.
How might Ngidi tackle the New Zealanders?
“I don’t think their middle and lower order batsmen have been tested enough; most of the guys who have scored the runs are at the top of the order,” he said.
“Take one or two wickets up front and get their middle order in as early as possible, and you could be looking at a different situation when it comes to their batting.”
Kane Williamson, Ross Taylor and Colin Munro are, in that order, New Zealand’s top scorers at the tournament. They are also three of the top four.
So, about that 1999 World Cup semi …
“If we are going to keep looking back at things that have happened, I don’t think that’s going to help us in any way going forward,” Ngidi said.
Besides, he was three years old when that match was played.
Move on, people. Nothing to see here.
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