The Star Early Edition

Colossal debut for Titans’ Ngidi

- STUART HESS

Day 1 of 4: Hollywoodb­ets Dolphins 207 Multiply Titans 45/0

LUNGI NGIDI’S name has been whispered around this region for a couple of years. Tall, powerfully built with a neat action, there are great expectatio­ns and he lived up to some of that yesterday in his first Sunfoil Series match.

Ngidi has made a few appearance­s in the limited overs competitio­ns for the Titans, but this was always likely to be a bigger examinatio­n of his ability. He passed it with flying colours.

He took to the match with aplomb, coming on first change in the seventh over from the Hennops River End. Conditions were cool and already the Titans’ new ball bowlers; David Wiese and Rowan Richards, not the quickest opening pair, had shown there was enough assistance off the pitch and through the air to justify Henry Davids’ decision to bowl upon winning the toss.

It took Ngidi until his third over before he picked up his first wicket, his high action extracting enough extra bounce to catch the top edge of Dolphins opener Sarel Erwee’s bat with Qaasim Adams taking a comfortabl­e catch in the gully.

Erwee and fellow opener Imraan Khan had given the Dolphins a solid start but their work unravelled in the face of a discipline­d and lengthy opening spell from Ngidi.

The 20-year-old followed Erwee’s wicket with that of Khan, to a loose shot, Daryn Smit with another that got big on the batsman and then a brute of a ball to Vaughn van Jaarsveld, forcing the lefthander to take evasive action and in the course of doing so, the ball found the edge of his bat with Adams taking a fine catch diving forward in the slips.

The Dolphins were reduced to 74/4 at lunch and it took a hard working 50 from Serunan Muthusamy to keep them afloat after the interval.

Ngidi returned to register a ‘five-for’ on his franchise debut when he had Mthokozisi Shezi caught behind by Heinrich Klaasen, and the landmark achievemen­t was thoroughly deserved. His final figures: 173-39-5.

The Titans openers Heino Kuhn and Aiden Markram survived a difficult test against some spirited and accurate seam bowling from the Dolphins in the final hour and day two offers them and the rest of the batsmen the chance to set aside the demons that have beset thus far.

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