Makhaya Ntini’s top 3 performances in ODI Cricket

The South African team is still one of the dangerous sides in cricket despite not gaining a lot of success in ICC trophies at all. Though there have been a lot of great batters in the squad, the Proteas were mostly known for their lethal pace bowlers. In fact South Africa had one of the best pacers in the World to ever grace the field. The likes of Alan Donald and Dale Steyn are some of the big examples.

This time we are going to be talking about another iconic pace bowler, none other than right-arm pacer Makhaya Ntini, who is one of the most underrated pacers in South Africa with over 650 international wickets in 250+ games. He has bowled some remarkable spells in both red-ball and white-ball cricket. Though he has had a great Test career, we cannot ignore some of his great performances in ODI’s where he has bowled some great spells for the rainbow nation.

So, here are the top 3 performances of Makhaya Ntini in ODI:

3. 5/31 vs New Zealand in 2002

This was the first final of the tri-series between Australia, South Africa and New Zealand and Ntini was still a young and upcoming pacer in the setup. However, it did not look like he was just 4 years old in International cricket as he went on to take a brilliant 5-wicket haul and destroyed the Kiwi batting lineup completely. This spell resulted in New Zealand collapsing for just 190 runs and the Proteas getting an easy win in the end.

2. 5/21 vs Pakistan in 2006

This was the day when the ICC Champions Trophy took place in Mohali and it was South Africa who batted first and could only manage a score of 213 on what was known to be a batting-friendly wicket. The rainbow nation needed something special and that is what they got from Ntini as he bowled a brilliant spell of 5/21 which resulted in Pakistan collapsing for just 89 runs. This was another iconic spell from Ntini who proved why he is one of the most reliable bowlers for his team.

Also Read: South African legend Makhaya Ntini was born in 1977

1. 6/22 vs Australia in 2006

This time we will go back to Cape Town where the mighty Aussies came to South Africa for an ODI series. The 2nd ODI saw South Africa put up a total of 289 on the board. The Aussies with their firepower would have thought they could chase this total down, but they were in for a surprise with Makhaya Ntini bowling another great spell taking 6/21 which resulted in a rare collapse with the Aussies getting bundled out under 100. This was one of the best bowling spells against a side that is known to continuously dominate their opponents. This showed us how dangerous Ntini can be with a ball in hand.