South Africa’s Lungi Ngidi continued his impressive debut campaign in the IPL as he notched up arguably the best bowling performance of the season in Chennai Super Kings’ clash with Kings XI Punjab.
Playing in only his fifth IPL game, the 22-year-old made full use of the helpful conditions on offer in Pune to rock Kings XI Punjab’s top-order.
The Proteas youngster dismissed Chris Gayle for a duck in his very first over after forcing the Jamaican to glove one down the leg side before generating some sharp in-swing to uproot KL Rahul’s stumps after the in-form opener shouldered arms.
The South African pacer’s first three overs went for just seven runs and he returned to wreak further havoc on the Kings XI batting line-up with his final over.
#KXIP are facing the wrath of Lungi Ngidi as the Protea pacer has ripped apart the visitors' top order! Who'll steady their ship now? #CSKvKXIP pic.twitter.com/utLVMFlUBQ
— Star Sports (@StarSportsIndia) May 20, 2018
Ngidi dismissed Ravichandran Ashwin after the Kings XI skipper feathered an edge through to MS Dhoni while trying to run the ball down the third man. Two deliveries later, he had his fourth victim of the night when Andrew Tye chipped the ball straight into the hands of Suresh Raina at mid off.
The pacer’s final over yielded only three runs as he finished with figures of 4-10, which was only behind Punjab pacer Ankit Rajpoot’s 5-14 against Sunrisers.
Ngidi’s efforts saw Kings XI Punjab bowled out for 153 runs after being made to bat first in the final league fixture of the IPL this year.
