New pace ace primed to challenge Australia

Lungi Ngidi has one simple wish after making a sensational Test debut for South Africa. 

"I'd like this to be a long career," he said on Wednesday after picking up the player-of-the-match award in the second Test against India in Centurion.

Given his history with injuries, it is hardly a surprising ambition for the strapping 21-year-old.

Ngidi impressed in the first innings with a direct-hit run-out and some high-paced bowling, even though he only picked up one wicket. And he was rewarded for his strong showing with figures of 6-39 in the second innings to help bowl South Africa to a 135-run win.

Ngidi was something of an experimental selection when he played in three Twenty20 internationals against Sri Lanka almost a year ago, but he got people talking when he took 2-12 and 4-19 in his first two matches.

Then, in the third game, he dived in the field and suffered a tear to his abdominal wall. He subsequently missed the one-day series and a tour of New Zealand but travelled with the South Africa A team on a tour of England in June.

He played in three one-day games on that tour and was then diagnosed with a stress fracture of the back.

History is littered with promising young fast bowlers who have had their careers ruined by stress fractures, but Ngidi believes he has come back fitter, stronger and wiser.

"I know many people talk about how injuries have affected me in the past," he said.

"I feel like this is a new start. In the past I didn't know what I was doing to be honest but now I have found my feet, the right path that I am going down and the right formula for me as a cricketer."

That formula involved months in the gym and on a physiotherapist's table, a diet and lifestyle change which saw him lose eight kilograms. And what he described as "a few hard chats behind closed doors" with his Titans franchise coach, former Test wicketkeeper Mark Boucher.

"I got a lot of time to reflect and get to know myself as a person, and I got through it. I am a lot stronger than I thought I was," he said.

Ngidi, playing in just his 10th first-class match, was part of an exciting pace foursome in Centurion, playing alongside Kagiso Rabada, Vernon Philander and Morne Morkel.

His call-up came after an injury to Dale Steyn in the first Test in Cape Town, with the veteran set to return to action next month ahead of their four-Test series against Australia in March.

A speed gun at Centurion timed one Ngidi delivery at 150.5 kmh and he was able to bowl consistently in the 140s.

He thought he had trapped Virat Kohli leg before wicket in the first innings but a faint inside edge saved the Indian captain. However, there was no reprieve for Kohli in the second innings when he was dismissed by a similar delivery that trapped him in front.

"The captain's wicket was a very special moment," Ngidi said.

"I felt like I had worked hard and sort of figured out a game plan for bowling towards him."

Like his new teammate Rabada, Ngidi went to one of South Africa's leading private schools.

While Rabada was at St Stithians in Johannesburg, Ngidi attended Hilton College near Pietermaritzburg, the alma mater of Mike Procter among 11 other Test players before Ngidi.

Ngidi was lured to Pretoria to attend Pretoria University, where he is studying for a labour law degree. It is also home to South Africa's cricket academy, so he can study and improve his cricket at the same time.

South African captain Faf du Plessis said he was impressed with Ngidi's maturity.

"I was incredibly impressed with his control," he said.

"When guys come into the team it's important to make them feel they belong. 

"But for them to perform they need mature heads on their shoulders (so) they don't see the occasion as too big, they just see it as another game where they can perform.

"Not ever when I looked at Lungi did I see any nerves, he was really calm, he just wanted to bowl."