After we talked about Allan Donald in a previous article, it is time to talk about a fast bowler from South Africa who was a hero for the people who looked like him and he was one of the very best in the world at his time and that time every team had the best batters playing for them. Makhaya Ntini had an unique action which became the talking point and many young Bowlers tried to emulate and he has taken so many wickets for South Africa that he is an all time great South Africa fast bowler. We will talk about his Records below.
Makhaya Ntini played international cricket from 1998-2009 and in those 11 years he rose to stardom like very few have and he played 101 test matches for South Africa in which he took 390 test Wickets at an average of 28.63 and he has taken 16 Five wicket hauls and 4 times he has taken 10 wickets in a test match. He has also played 173 ODIs for South Africa and in those Matches he has taken 266 wickets at an average of 24.66 with 4 Five wicket hauls in ODIs. This means a total of 655 international Wickets for Makhaya Ntini for South Africa. Let’s look at his Top 5 Best Performances.
6/66 vs New Zealand (2000)
This is the first 5 wicket haul in the test career of Makhaya Ntini and he was the reason that South Africa won this test match so this performance has to be on this list. He was a young fast bowler who had played for a year and in this match he got his reward. In the second batting innings for New Zealand he decimated the good batting order of New Zealand and bowled 31.4 overs and gave away 66 runs and got 6 Wickets. As a result of this incredible performance South Africa won this match by 5 wickets and this was a special performance by the young fast bowler.
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5/75 and 5/145 vs England (2003)
This is one of the best overseas bowling performances at Lord’s and Makhaya Ntini in 2003 made history by getting his name twice on the honors board. In the first innings of the year's match England were unable to get any sort of a start and Makhaya Ntini was the main reason behind it. He picked up wickets at regular intervals and in just 17 overs of hostile fast bowling be got 5 Wickets. Then came the third Innings of the test match and here also Makhaya Ntini bowled his heart out for 31 overs and got another 5 wicket haul and South Africa won this test match by an innings and 92 Runs.
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6/95 and 7/37 vs West Indies (2005)
One of the best match spells of fast bowling in a test match was seen in this match by Makhaya Ntini when he destroyed the West Indies in their own home and took 13 wickets in the match. In the first innings of the test match West Indies tried to score runs and set a good total but Makhaya Ntini was taking wickets all the time and he put a stop to the plans of West Indies and after bowling 28 overs he got 6 Wickets for 95 runs. However, he saved the best for the third Innings where he was in beast mode and it looked like every ball was a wicket. He bowled 19.5 overs in this innings and after giving away only 37 runs he picked up 7 wickets in this innings and South Africa won the match by 6 wickets.
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5/37 vs Sri Lanka (2001)
This was the first 5 wicket haul for Makhaya Ntini in ODIs and like all the other performances in this list this one also led to a big win for South Africa and he was the star of the win. Sri Lanka were chasing 291 runs to win and Ntini just got into rampaging mode as he bowled 8.2 overs of fast bowling and as a result he got 5 of the 10 Sri Lankan wickets and he established himself as a very good ODI bowler as well and someone who could excel in both formats. This was a special moment for him.
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6/22 vs Australia (2006)
To have your best ODI bowling performance against the best ODI team of all time is just the stuff that only legends do and Makhaya Ntini did just that in this match. Australia were chasing 290 to win and with the great batting line-up that they had Makhaya Ntini made them look like school kids. He bowled 9.3 overs and only gave away 22 runs and took 6 wickets which is simply extraordinary. He pulverized the great team and bowled them out for a paltry 93 runs and South Africa won this ODI by a humongous 196 runs. It was a once in a couple of years performance.
