South Africa pacer Lungi Ngidi has said he was \u201ctaken aback\u201d after International Cricket Council (ICC) banned fellow paceman Kagiso Rabada for two Tests. He also said that he was forced to rethink his actions as a player after what happened to Rabada after second Test between South Africa and Australia which the Proteas won.<\/p>\n
\u201cTheir judgement is the final call. I\u2019ve got no right to say they\u2019re wrong. We just take care of what we can on the field,\u201d Ngidi was quoted as saying by Cricbuzz. \u201c\u2018KG\u2019, as a player he knows he might have crossed the line. Maybe not. Who are we to say where the line is? It\u2019s an interesting situation. I\u2019ve never been part of it. Coming into international cricket and seeing something like this happen, it does take you aback and make you rethink your actions as a player.\u201d<\/p>\n
ICC handed Rabada a ban of two Test matches after he was charged with Level 2 offence. Match referee Jeff Crowe gave Rabada three demerit points to Rabada\u2019s record which took his total to 8 points resulting in a ban. Crowe thought that the fast bowler\u2019s shoulder contact with Australia captain Steve Smith on day one of the Port Elizabeth Test was both inappropriate and deliberate.<\/p>\n
Rabada himself admitted that he has let himself and his team down with his actions. Now, South Africa will miss him for the remaining Test of the four-match series which is tied 1-1.<\/p>\n
Ngidi and Rabada were teammates during their U19 days and both played for South Africa. They know each other well and Ngidi thinks that Rabada is naturally aggressive pacer and comes out in the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can be aggressive with your actions, with what you say, or \u2013 in general, for me \u2013 the areas you bowl,\u201d Ngidi said. \u201cPutting a batsman under pressure, having a presence, letting him know that you\u2019re there. Those are the things I lean towards as a cricketer. I don\u2019t really have to say much. I feel just a look may be good enough. Those are the kinds of things I say are aggression.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ngidi is South Africa\u2019s latest pace bowling find and he is slowly finding his feet in the team. He says that though he has a lot to learn from Rabada, he does not want to follow his teammates footsteps.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m starting to find my own feet. He\u2019s a great bowler to get information from and to learn from. But I am a different person. I\u2019m a lot more reserved as a person, so I can never say I want to want to be \u2018KG\u2019 Rabada. I\u2019ve got my own abilities, my own skills and traits. Having him give me a bit of advice here and there is really helpful. It\u2019s helping me improve as a person and as a cricketer.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ngidi is son of parents who are domestic workers and he did not expect to make it this big in cricket. Since making his debut against India in January, he has been on the rise. He was picked for the second Test ahead of Morne Morkel and justified that selection with five wickets.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t expect the national contact but I will take it in my stride as well. I\u2019m just really enjoying everything that\u2019s happening. The pace might be a quick but taking it every day at a time,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Now, he can step up. With Rabada all set to miss the third Test (Rabada can still appeal against ban), Ngidi has a big responsibility of playing a bigger role in South Africa pace battery.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe thing is if he is not there, we are a well-rounded bowling team,\u201d Ngidi said. \u201cWe\u2019ve got very experienced guys in Morne and Vernon (Philander). They know how to lead bowling attacks. Also bringing me into the attack. They know how to give information and pretty much display what to do in the field.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
South Africa pacer Lungi Ngidi has said he was \u201ctaken aback\u201d after International Cricket Council (ICC) banned fellow paceman Kagiso Rabada for two Tests. He also said that he was forced to rethink his actions as a player after what happened to Rabada after second Test between South Africa and Australia which the Proteas won. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24801,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[122],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24800","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24800","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24800"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24800\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24802,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24800\/revisions\/24802"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}