South Africa’s fast bowler Lungi Ngidi believes Team India was feeling a little bit of pressure after Virat Kohli and Co.
Lashed out at the broadcaster following a DRS call against Dean Elgar, which didn’t go their way at Newlands, Cape Town against South Africa on Thursday on third day’s play.
India had taken only a solitary wicket till that stage and the frustrations were palpable after Marais Erasmus’s LBW decision against the South African skipper was overturned as the hawkeye showed that the ball would have just missed the stumps.
KL Rahul was heard saying, “It’s us 11 versus the whole country while Mayank Agarwal chirped, “Do the broadcasters make money out of this?”. Ravichandran Ashwin, on whose bowling the decision was overturned, said, “You got to find better ways to win Supersport”.
Kohli, meanwhile, was heard chirping – “Certainly conducting a fair game here DRS”
In fact, it should be noted that India veered off the track after the decision didn’t go their way and they were not accurate in their strategy and bowling. As a result, Dean Elgar and Keegan Petersen extended their alliance to 82 runs before the former was dismissed by Jasprit Bumrah.
“Reactions like that show a bit of frustration and sometimes teams capitalize on that. You never want to show so much emotion, but we could see emotions were high. That tells us they are feeling a little bit of pressure. That was a good partnership for us and they really wanted to break it. Those feelings ended up showing there. Everyone reacts differently and what we saw there was what those guys were feeling at the time,” Lungi Ngidi said in the post-day press conference.
Meanwhile, Lungi Ngidi got three wickets on the third day to get his team back in the contest. The right-arm pacer from Durban got the big wicket of Indian skipper Virat Kohli, which ended a 94-run partnership with Rishabh Pant. Furthermore, Ngidi dismissed Ravichandran Ashwin and Shardul Thakur in quick succession.
India posted 198 runs in the second dig after a brilliant century from Rishabh Pant and thus gave a target of 212 runs to the Proteas. The tourists are now eight wickets away from winning the third Test while the home team needs 111 runs more to win.
