IPL 2018: Watching Faf du Plessis Bat Like That Was A Blessing To See : Lungi Ngidi

Lungi Ngidi lavished praise on Faf du Plessis after the latter struck a brilliant half century to power Chennai Super Kings to a thrilling 2-wicket win over Sunrisers Hyderabad in the first Qualifier.

It looked as if the game would be an one-sided affair after the Super Kings restricted the Sunrisers to a modest 139 for 7. MS Dhoni’s decision to bowl first was totally justified by his bowlers.

Deepak Chahar gave the Super Kings the best possible start by castling Shikhar Dhawan on the very first ball of the match. Shreevats Goswami and Kane Williamson managed to steady the ship. However, the duo could not last long and added only 34 runs. Lungi Ngidi broke the stand by sending back Goswami. 2 runs later, Shardul Thakur accounted for the in-form Kane Williamson to put the Super Kings on top.

Wickets continued to fall as Sunrisers found themselves reeling at 88 for 6 with all their main batsmen back in the hut. West Indies star Carlos Brathwaite then played an unbeaten knock of 43 to guide the Sunrisers to a respectable total.

The Sunrisers bowlers then came out all guns blazing to have the Super Kings in all sorts of trouble. Bhuvneshwar Kumar dismissed Shane Watson for a five-ball duck in the first over to set the tone.

Siddarth Kaul then took two in two to leave the Super Kings reeling at 24 for 3. He sent back Suresh Raina before accounting for the in-form Ambati Rayudu on the very next ball.  And even before the Super Kings could recover from these setbacks, they suffered perhaps the match-ending setback. Rashid Khan castled MS Dhoni for 9 to leave them reeling at 39 for 4.

The Super Kings soon found themselves 5 down for 57 Rashid struck again to remove Dwayne Bravo. Runs dried up and wickets kept on falling as Super Kings were 93 for 7 after 15 overs.

But just when it looked the game was as good as over for the Super Kings, du Plessis, waging a lone battle, hit Carlos Brathwaite for 3 fours and a six in the 18th over to revive the chase. The equation was finally down to 23 from the last two overs which later reduced to 6 from as many balls with 2 wickets in hand. Du Plessis then hit the first ball of the last over for a six to take his side home. Du Plessis remained unbeaten on 67 off 42 balls with the help of 5 fours and 4 sixes.

Following the win, Ngidi took to Twitter to hail his compatriot, writing:

Watching @faf1307 bat like that was a blessing to see under pressure the man kept his cool just beautiful to watch…

Watching @faf1307 bat like that was a blessing to see under pressure the man kept his cool just beautiful to watch…

— Lungisani Ngidi (@NgidiLungi) May 22, 2018