In distressing scenes at the Arun Jaitley stadium in New Delhi, Lungi Ngidi suffered a severe head injury while attempting to take a catch backtracking from mid-off in the fixture between Delhi Capitals and Punjab Kings on Saturday (April 25). An ambulance had to be summoned on the field take him to the hospital, due to the severity of the injury.
An hour and a half later, an official statement from the IPL confirmed that the pacer was in stable condition and was due to be discharged soon. The South African had to be hospitalised after having complained of a headache and neck pain in the aftermath of the fall.
With Priyansh Arya miscuing an Axar Patel delivery in the third over of the game, Ngidi stretched out but didn't get his hands on the ball and ended up tumbling backwards. His head hit the ground hard and he immediately clutched it in pain.
The play then stopped for a prolonged period as physios attended to him. Ngidi continued to be on the floor, and there was a stretcher and an ambulance called for. Concerned faces from both teams watched on as the medical team delicately shifted him onto the stretcher and the ambulance before it left the field for a hospital for scans.
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Around the time Ngidi was being attended to, Sri Lanka pacer Dushmantha Chameera was being readied to come in as the like-for-like concussion substitute. But it wasn't possible as DC already fielded four overseas players - including Ngidi - in their starting XI. As DC had to pick from their list of substitutes named in the impact player list, they had to go with Vipraj Nigam, even though he wasn't a like-for-like option by definition.
After the fixture, which Delhi Capitals lost despite scoring the highest total of IPL 2026, their Director of Cricket Venugopal Rao confirmed the reason for not being able to bring Chameera on.
"Nobody wants to see this happen to a player but we missed his four overs," Rao lamented.
