South Africa wont apportion blame to one player for the tricky position they found themselves in at the end of the first day, but it was hard not to watch Australias attack give the Proteas batters absolutely nothing in the last session of play on Wednesday and not think: What was Lungi Ngidi doing?
Steve Smith and Kagiso Rabada explained how difficult the Lords surface was for batting. It nipped and moved around a lot, said Rabada. It offered something all day, said Smith.
But where Australias attack conceded two or less runs per over, and Rabada, Marco Jansen and Wiaan Mulder were all 3.5 runs or less when they bowled, Ngidis economy rate of 5.62 sticks out like a sore thumb.
He certainly bowled like someone with an injured digit. Smith said Australias batters didnt deliberately counterattack after lunch, when their scoring rate shot up to 4.7 runs an over. We got a few more loose balls that we could put away, he said.
Those primarily were delivered by Ngidi, who conceded seven boundaries. They didnt miss their lengths and they bowled really well, Rabada said of the Australians.