Lungi Ngidi, on Sunday, revealed that he was nervous ahead of his debut game against India, saying he won't let go his first delivery in the Centurion Test.

Ngidi, who plays in the second Test in place of the injured pace spearhead Dale Steyn, has finished with the decent figures of 1/26 in 9 overs as well as being involved in a brilliant run-out of Cheteshwar Pujara on Day 2 of the second Test in SuperSport Park. He dismissed Parthiv Patel to bag his first Test wicket. 

Speaking at the after-match press conference, Lungi Ngidi told reporters, “I was very nervous, I thought with my first ball I wasn’t going to let it go I was holding it so tight. But once I let it go I got the feeling that this was my moment and I need to grab it with both hands. After that, I just started running in.”

He further added, “It’s a dream come true, I actually had goosebumps. The way I took it…I was talking to Vernon in terms of game-plans on how to get that wicket. Listening to someone with so much knowledge, and it planning out exactly the way he was telling me, it made me really happy and believe that I can perform at this level.”

While praising Vernon Philander, Ngidi said, “Having Vern (Philander) at mid-off really helped a lot, the game plans that he tells me and we work on, they really make sense to me. So after changing the angle (to come around the wicket) I saw the ball was going away from the left-hander and that it was a better option.”

The 21-year-old speedster also said they had hoped that the Centurion wicket would assist the fast bowlers, but they did not get the assistance from the wicket.

Ngidi signed off by saying, “They have given us a sniff and our bowling line-up is pretty fired up to keep taking sticks. The wicket might be a little slow but the guys are running in hard so there will be a bit of movement. It's cricket, whatever wicket you are given you have to play on, we just want to make the best of what we have.”