Nandre Burger no delicacy for Indian batters in first Test disaster

 

 

“Nandre Burger to Jaiswal, no run, starts with a peach of a delivery. A lovely length ball with a straight seam that shapes away after pitching and beats Jaiswal on the outside edge,” Cricbuzz Text commentary.

 

This was the first ball bowled by South African Burger in his Test career against India. His last ball of the opening Test wobbled off the pitch to whistle past the No.11 batter’s outside edge. In a nutshell, the tall left-arm pace bowler knew what to do on a track which had its share of indentations. Most of the time, he wasn’t looking to swing the ball with an angled seam position like a few of his Indian counterparts. Instead, the goal was to hit the seam or occasionally twin it with a wobble seam and extract movement off the pitch. 

 

Those simple methods proved to be mighty effective as Burger finished with seven wickets in a Test where South Africa inflicted an innings defeat on India.  In-between, Burger also showcased a few of his other skills. Alongside hitting the pitching hard, Burger employed a round the wicket angle to good effect. In the second innings, Burger removed KL Rahul, the first-innings centurion, and Ravi Ashwin by using that angle. 

 

If you zoom in on those two deliveries a few times, it could be observed that he also generated a hint of swing with the old-ball. He swung the new ball a few times, too. To make it even better, Burger’s top pace in the game was just over 90mph. As the South African commentators mentioned, Burger is a ‘power bowler’. Basically, the commentators were pointing towards how Burger seems to power through the crease and bowl at a good burst of pace. Moreover, Burger also had the control to execute all his skills. 

 

 

So, who is Nandre Burger? Burger, born in Krugersdorp, better known as the mining city in Gauteng, made his first-class cricket in 2015-16 in the three-day Sunfoil Cup. It was only in November 2018 that Burger played his maiden four-day first-class game. He has certainly been a consistent performer in first-class cricket, having scalped 129 wickets at 26.98. His performances in limited overs, too, have been noteworthy. Just do a Google search and you will get to see more evidence of his burgeoning potential – a picture-perfect inswinger that cleaned up the young batting sensation, Dewald Brevis.

 

Burger also bagged the scalps of Joe Root and Jos Buttler in a practice game for South Africa A against England XI in 2019-20. Of course, the England batters might point to the fact that they took more than 100 runs off him. In 2021, Burger also found a place in South Africa’s T20 squad for the tour of Pakistan. 

 

Unfortunately for Burger, there was a setback around the corner. In November 2021, Burger was laid low by a stress fracture in the back. Just a year after he returned to action, Burger won his maiden cap for South Africa as he made his T20I debut at the Wanderers.  Just a couple of weeks on, he was one of the stars of South Africa’s spectacular show in the Centurion Test. 

 

At 28, Burger seems to have a mature head on his shoulders, along with the required skill-set in his arrow sheaf to scale bigger heights. Is there any weakness in his bowling? Perhaps, as Kevin Pietersen said on X Platform that he needs to stop smiling after bowling every delivery.