All eyes on Lungi Ngidi at the Wanderers

It took a responsive wicket and a fast bowler receptive to positive change in the face of adversity to help produce the first win in this season's Sunfoil Series.

Lungi Ngidi with 6/37 and 3/46 took almost half of the wickets on offer to him at the Wanderers as the Highveld Lions capitulated on Wednesday barely halfway through day three of their match against the Titans.

The tyro put the Lions on the backfoot on the first day and although the hosts counter-punched they folded again when they were in a position to press ahead.

Titans coach Mark Boucher got a little giddy in his praise of Ngidi‚ who with the world at this feet‚ suffered a severe orthopaedic setback last year.

“There are certainly eyes in him now‚” quipped Boucher.

“It is very satisfying for me as a coach to see him come through.

"A lot of credit has to go to the medical staff.

"We sat down when he came back from England with a very serious injury for a fast bowler.

"The initial stages of a stress fracture is always very scary.”

The former Proteas wicketkeeper explained Ngidi's injury brought him to an early crossroads in his career.

“We sat him down and explained to him he need to do a lot of work. He needed to change his lifestyle a bit.

"The door opened for him on the international circuit and it is now up to him if he wanted to bash the door down and want to make a living out of the game.

"His response has been phenomenal.

“You can see his body has developed over the last three‚ four months. He's got a lot stronger and he's looking leaner.

“His professionalism towards the game has changed as well. It doesn't surprise me that he is putting in these results because he did a lot of work in the off season.

“He's a work in progress and he is going to get better as his career goes on.

"The important stage was for him to get stronger in the off season. It does go to show that hard work pay off‚” Boucher said of the 21-year-old.

The wicket too played its part to produce the first result after 12 draws at the start of the four day competition.

Boucher didn't have a definitive theory on the stalemates.

“A bit of everything really. The wickets have been batting friendly‚ quite dry but then your spinners should come into it as well.

"The whole new system of 16 points is encouraging to play confident‚ aggressive cricket but because no one won in the first round everyone is too scared of making big calls because the other side can leapfrog ahead.

“You will probably see more exciting cricket in the second round once one or two teams distance themselves from the rest.

"Then the big gambles will take place and we'll know if the system works or not.”