Class of 2023
The Khaya Majola Coke Week has a few stars, here are a couple to look forward to...
The 2023 edition of the Coca-Cola Khaya Majola Week is upon us, and it promises to be a good one.
It's not impossible. But, it is difficult to make a call on the future of a cricketer based on their Khaya Majola Week performance. 150 players take part in the tournament each year (the 2023 edition will feature 208 players) and only about half of those make it as professional players, locally and abroad. And a fraction of that number makes it as international cricketers. But, sometimes you watch a young player and you just know.
Anyone who watched Ronan Herrmann's 2021 Khaya Majola Week performance would not have hesitated to bet that he would one day play for the Proteas. The then-17-year-old left a mark on the tournament. He scored an unbeaten 152 runs, the fourth-highest individual score at the tournament. Herrmann scored 344 runs at an average of 114.67 and was named the Player of the Tournament. He retained the title a year later. In April 2022, Herrmann made his List A debut for the Lions in the final of the One-Day Cup and helped his team to the title.
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Steve Stolk is another youngster whom, when you watch him go about his business, you just know he has a future as a professional cricketer. His Coke Week campaign is yet to begin, but he has given the world a foretaste of what is to come. The 17-year-old Menlo Park learner sent fielders on an unending leather chase in the 2023 LPL. He bludgeoned 36 fours and 33 sixes in 12 matches for the Bank All Stars’ Under-17 team. In the final, Stolk scored an imperious 157 off 70 to lead his team to the title. He finished the tournament with 424 runs at a strike rate of 210.
Less than half an hour later, Stolk padded up for the All Stars’ Under-19 team and carved an imperious 78 runs off 37 balls at a strike rate of 211. His knock featured five fours and seven sixes. Stolk’s dominance at the LPL is underlined by his boundary percentage. 80.47% of his runs were from boundaries.
Later in the year, Stolk dominated bowlers at the Westvaal North-South tournament. The 17-year-old scored the third-most runs and had the highest strike rate among the top 10 batters at the tournament. He also had the third-highest average of the tournament. He scored 322 runs off 152 deliveries for an average of 80.5 and a strike rate of 211.8. 63.35% of his runs came off boundaries.
When Stolk was in Grade 8, his father asked him what career he hoped to pursue. Stolk replied that he wanted to be a professional cricketer. He had dreams of playing all three formats for the Proteas and the IPL. He wanted to be an all-rounder like Jacques Kallis. After his conversation with his father, Stolk wrote in bold and underlined the Under-19 World Cup as a major checkpoint on his path to his dream career.
From 20 to 22 October 2023, Stolk attended the SA Under-19 trials at the University of Pretoria’s TUKS grounds. In the two games that he featured in, Stolk scored 145 runs at a strike rate of 147.84. 64.83% of his runs came off boundaries. He hit a boundary every 1.54 balls, no other batter had numbers like this in the tournament.
The most remarkable thing about Steve Stolk isn’t that he is scoring runs, it’s that he is doing so at high strike rates. Bowlers in his age group cannot contain him. He has a complete range of shots, drives, cuts, and sweeps. His strength against the short ball is admirable, and also possesses the ability to muscle balls through the field. He uses his feet against both spin and pace to disrupt bowlers’ lines and lengths. Needless to say, his ball-striking is one of the cleanest around.
However, Stolk isn’t a flat-track bully. Early in 2023, Stolk, who has batted at number three for most of his schoolboy and representative career, came in at number six for Menlo Park. The pitch was on the slow side. His team was in trouble on 63 for four after 15 overs against Affies. Stolk performed a rescue job and scored a chanceless match-winning century. Arno van Wyk, Stolk’s coach at Menlo Park, would later remark that it was a coming-of-age innings.
One of the other things striking things about Stolk is his style. He has a couple of mannerisms that seem to mimic Dewald Brevis’s approach. It’s not an accident. Like Brevis, Stolk grew up watching and was influenced by AB de Villiers. Also, like Brevis, Stolk has and continues to receive help from the former Proteas star. A lot of credit goes to Albie Morkel who acted and still acts as a conduit between the two when needed.
If you have not followed Coca-Cola Khaya Majola Week, Steve Stolk is a good enough reason to watch or follow the tournament. The Pretoria Capitals’ rookie for the 2024 season might bring fireworks.
Should Stolk’s Titans team meet the Gauteng Lions’ during the tournament, the battle between Stolk and his good friend, Kwena Maphaka, who represents the Lions, might also be an intriguing one. It would be on the same scale as Marvin Hagler and Thomas Hearns’ epic 1985 bout.
Maphaka, also aged 17, is what you would get if a left-handed Kagiso Rabada existed, though he is not as tall as the Proteas superstar. When I spoke with his coach at St. Stithians, Wim Jansen, I was not surprised to learn that the Proteas star mentors the youngster.
Maphaka attended his first Under-19 World Cup at 15 and has already featured in the SA A team. He was flown into Colombo to replace Lutho Sipamla, his Lions teammate, just two months after his birthday. Sipamla had suffered an injury and had to fly back home. Maphaka played one unofficial Test against Sri Lanka A and looked at home as he bagged two wickets for 43 runs and a single wicket for 27 runs in the match.
Maphaka is about five and 10km/h quicker than his peers at the schoolboy level. He pushes the speed gun to the upper 130s and early 140s. However, Maphaka isn’t just a speed merchant. The teenager, whose repertoire includes a delivery that goes across the right-hander, the one that sneaks back in late, a menacing bouncer and a toe-crunching yorker, also trades in accuracy. He also bowls a good slower ball, an off-cutter.
Maphaka showed just how lethal he can be at the Independent Schools’ Festival held at Hilton College in February 2023. The left-arm pacer reduced Hilton College’s much-vaunted top order to 19 for five in 4.5 overs. The teenager needed only 17 deliveries to bag all five wickets. He sent stumps cartwheeling for four of his dismissals and trapped one batter lbw.
When he joined the SA Under-19 team that contested at the 2022 Under-19 World Cup, Maphaka was meant to be there for the experience, to learn and grow. He ended up playing some games and taking a few wickets. At the 2024 edition, he will be one of the guaranteed starters. Maphaka is also on the Paarl Royals’ roster for the 2024 SA20 season.
Another youngster to watch will be Lhuan-dre Pretorius. The Lions starlet can swing the willow. He was crowned the Player of the Tournament at the Westvaal North-South tournament. He scored 415 runs off 241 balls for an average of 103.8 at a strike rate of 172.2. Ross Boast, Matthew Boast’s younger brother, is another one to watch out for. The KZN Inland and Hilton College all-rounder is following in his brother’s footsteps.
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Thanks for reading. Until next time… - CS