The ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup has not gone well at all for South Africa so far and they faced another major blow in the name of Lungi Ngidi, who suffered a hamstring injury during their match against Bangladesh, which will take around a week or 10 days to recover.
“He was assessed and clinically we felt that he had a left hamstring strain. We decided not to let him go out there and bowl any further in this match. So currently, it probably means that he’ll be out for about a week to 10 days, but we’ll have scans done tomorrow. The plan will be probably to get him ready for the West Indies match,” ICC quoted Dr Mohammed Moosajee, team manager, as saying.
Ngidi bowled only four overs against Bangladesh and walked back to the dressing room after the conclusion of the seventh over. He did not make a comeback on the field for the rest of the match. Ngidi has been in an impeccable form as he got hold of three wickets during their World Cup opening match against England and conceded 66 runs in his 10 overs. Whereas he did not get much time to make his mark in the second game as he bowled only four overs and gave away 34 runs.
After suffering an embarrassing 104-run defeat at the hands of England, South Africa continued their dismal run in the World Cup as Bangladesh trounced them by 21 runs.
However, it was not just Nigidi who missed the match, Hashim Amla too was ruled out of the match against Bangladesh after he suffered a blow to his head in the first match against England. Dale Steyn also has not played a match for the Proteas owing to his shoulder injury. Therefore, the absence of Ngidi is expected to further deteriorate their performance in the premier tournament.
South Africa will now play against India on June 5.