Philander talked me through how to get Patel out, says Ngidi

SOMETIMES, in the hurly-burly of a Test match, it is easy to forget that matters in the middle concern humans, with feelings, and dreams, and genuine delight at a life’s worth of plans coming together.

The bustling fast bowler’s green cap was handed over by someone who is almost as proud as Lungi Ngidi was at being selected for the second Test between South Africa and India, on a ground they share.

Aiden Markram did the honours, with the most bromantic of hugs.

Ngidi earned his first Test cap on Saturday morning but, though he sang the anthem and was on the team sheet, it wouldn’t quite have counted until he ran in, let loose, and got the thrill of doing the business that got him to this elevated point. “It was a dream, really,” Ngidi beamed. “To make my debut, on my home ground, it was a dream.”

Ngidi wore a smile as loud and proud as the cheer that rang around Centurion when he ran Cheteshwar Pujara out, even before he bowled his first ball in Test cricket yesterday.

“I didn’t think he was going to run,” he said of the Indian No 3.

“He just hit it and set off, so I was worried about getting my angles right.

“I slipped a little, but then I saw that he was still a long way away.”

The run out, a direct hit from mid-on, was an appetiser chucked in as a bonus on the day he finally took the field for SA.

His teammates enveloped him in the joy of removing one of India’s most obstinate bricks without scoring, and the crowd delighted in Ngidi stepping up, even before he was required to step up.

When he did get the ball, it was to run into one of the game’s foremost batsmen, Virat Kohli.

He gathered the butterflies dancing in his (former) belly, and delivered a maiden.

He thought he actually had foxed Kohli into a leg-before, but the Indian skipper was saved by the thinnest of inside edges.

“I nearly got him. I thought I had him,” he winced, no doubt still cursing the fine margins that dictate the game that occupies his every waking day.

And then, of course, he did get his maiden wicket. It wasn’t Kohli just yet, but the manner of dismissing Parthiv Patel chortled him no end.

“I had actually spoken to Vernon (Philander) and he had talked me through how to get him out,” Ngidi said.

“Listening to someone with so much knowledge, and then executing, it really made me feel like I can play at this level.”

It was a small moment, in a career with huge potential, but there was more than a flutter of excitement across the Pretoria crowd when he got chucked the ball for the first time. Kagiso Rabada on at one end, Ngidi on the other … it was a small moment, but it wasn’t lost on the masses in the crowd – of all races.

“This is pretty cool, ne?” said one Johan to his mate, over a beer while surveying the scene.

It was some day at Centurion.