He showed he has the speed and the spark on a flat Cape Town pitch, and he’s continuing his quest for more consistency to truly make his skills count
Firdose Moonda07-Jan-2025With express pace, good control and a calm, mature demeanour, it can be easy to forget Kwena Maphaka is just a teenager. But when he took his first Test wicket, he provided a reminder of his youth.Maphaka was into his second spell as a Test cricketer, bowling to one of the world’s best, Babar Azam who was on 58. While Maphaka had been getting his speeds up past 140kph, he was still trying to work out his lines and delivered one down the leg side which Babar followed in an attempt to flick away. Babar didn’t get hold of it as well as he should have and sent a fine edge into Kyle Verreynne’s gloves.Maphaka ran all the way down the pitch towards Verryenne and then straight past him, almost to the boundary. He spread his arms wide as his team-mates chased him and showed no signs of stopping. “And running through my mind was literally nothing other than, ‘I’ve got my first test wicket, let me run around and parade,” Maphaka said at Newlands after South Africa’s 10-wicket win. “It was really crazy, I was just trying to hit a good area. That ball did not go where it was supposed to. But things like that happen for a reason, I’m really happy to have got that wicket.”Related
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He finished the match with two more and an appetite for international cricket. Though he has yet to receive his final school results, has already passed the first Test of his career with flying colours and he sounds like he knows it. “I was really just trying to stay calm, and trying to be as focused as possible on bowling the same ball, or similar balls consistently, rather than trying too many things at once,” he said. “Test cricket from what I’ve heard and what I’ve seen, is a game of simplicity, so I was just trying to keep it as simple as possible.”Maphaka had the good fortune of debuting in an attack with three other frontline quicks in a match that was consequential in ensuring South Africa won a series but not in whether they got to the World Test Championship final. That meant there was slightly less pressure on them than there might have been if this was a must-win. They could take their time in stages, and they did on a flat deck filled with runs, which also meant Maphaka had the challenge of playing in conditions that did not really suit him – or any of the bowlers – and so he had to stay patient and work for his wickets. But he had a captain, Temba Bavuma, who made it clear before the match that Maphaka was not on trial, used him well and allowed his skill to shine through.As South Africa’s least experienced seamer, in matches and years, Maphaka was carefully managed. He bowled 8.2 out of 54.2 overs in the first innings and only 13 of the 122.1 overs in the second for a match total of 128 balls. He has only sent down more deliveries once previously, in his second first-class match in November 2023, where he bowled 24.5 overs – 149 balls. Remember that this is just his fourth red-ball game and building up his loads judiciously will be key to his long-term future. Using him sparsely not only allowed Maphaka to find his feet in the format but was also tactical as it allowed him to keep his speeds up. Pakistan captain Shan Masood singled him out as the bowler who “cranked it up” and made things uncomfortable.
“I was really just trying to stay calm, and trying to be as focused as possible on bowling the same ball, or similar balls consistently, rather than trying too many things at once. Test cricket from what I’ve heard and what I’ve seen, is a game of simplicity, so I was just trying to keep it as simple as possible.”Kwena Maphaka
His standout spell came on the fourth day, when he was given the old ball with less than 10 minutes to go before the lunch break. Pakistan were 307 for 3, Masood had bedded in on 134 and South Africa seemed to be biding time before the second new ball. Maphaka’s second ball was fast, full and fired into the pads. It squared Saud Shakeel up and though South Africa went up for the appeal, they decided not to review. Replays showed they should have because the ball was going on to hit leg stump and Shakeel would have been out on 14. Did Maphaka wish he or someone else had tried to convince Bavuma a little harder to send it upstairs? It doesn’t sound like it.”It’s really one of those things where you make the right decision or you make the wrong decision and it doesn’t really matter, you’ve got to get on with the game,” he said. “We made the wrong decision but it wasn’t really helpful to look back. It was actually just better to look forward and say, you know what, we’re going to get him out anyway. Let’s see how we’re going to get him out.”It was Kagiso Rabada who got Shakeel with the second new ball but Maphaka, who shared it, also had success. He removed Masood, on review, with what the Pakistan captain believed was an error of technology but one South African won’t complain about. Maphaka found swing with the second new ball, moved it away from Masood and struck him on the knee roll. Masood and on-field umpire Nitin Menon thought would have missed his off stump but Hawkeye did not. Maphaka got two more overs after that and impressed with his pace, bounce and movement.Kwena Maphaka asked the right questions on Test debut•AFP/Getty ImagesHe was easily the most threatening of the quicks in that period. The analysis of that spell read: 7-1-16-1, and could be remembered as a sign of things to come for the young man. “All the nerves were really gone, so it was really just focusing on hitting an area, and trying to be as consistent as possible,” he said.This is something Maphaka has said for the last year, since topping the wicket-takers’ list at last year’s Under-19 World Cup. While pace comes naturally to him, he also wants to make sure he delivers it with discipline so that he challenges batters across formats and particularly in the longest one.His introduction to Test cricket has come early and he could wait as long as 10 months to play another game, and 22 to do it at home. South Africa’s next scheduled fixture is the WTC final at Lord’s in June before an October trip to Pakistan. They are not due to play Tests at home until October 2026. In between that, Maphaka will play in the SA20, the IPL, perhaps a few other leagues and in South Africa’s white-ball set-up, and the road ahead is overflowing with possibility.At least one person always knew it would be this way. Test coach Shukri Conrad picked Maphaka in the national Under-19 team when he was just 15 years old and the two have had a strong bond ever since. The only other time Maphaka serves up a reminder of how young he is when he talks about Rabada, whom he described as being “like a big brother”, and Conrad. “As a cricketer my coach backs me 100%, so I can back myself and I know that there’s no real pressure on me,” he said of Conrad. “Obviously, cricket is a game of pressure, but there’s no pressure from the change room in terms of my performances and how I go about my business.”As he gets older that may change, but for now he is basking in the youthful joy of his early success.