Thando Ntini – The new bloke in town

Makhaya Ntini was the one of the best fast bowlers that South Africa ever produced. He picked up 390 wickets in Tests and 266 wickets in ODIs, that is, 656 wickets in total. Now, you must be wondering why are we talking about Ntini. Well, it s because his son, Thando Ntini, seems to be following his father s footsteps really well. In the first youth ODI (U-19 match) against West Indies, the 17-yr-old picked up 4 wickets for 56 and also got the centurion Kirstan Kallicharan out for 101.

The South African team went on to chase down the target of 223 runs in 41.1 overs with Raynard Tonder scoring an unbeaten 131 off just 133 balls. Even though Tonder bagged the Man of the Match award, it was Ntini, who had set the tone for his side s victory. He picked up two wickets in his first spell and got both, Keagon Simmons and Emmanuel Stewart, out for ducks.

There is still a long way to go for Thando Ntini, but the 17-yr-old is definitely the one to look after in future. With his unusual, away-from-the-stumps action, his father achieved many highs, and was one of the jovial, winsome players to ever play cricket. If Thando is anything like his father, we would have another entertaining cricketer in the scenes.