Maphaka's Best Over For Lions
Kwena Maphaka delivered his best over for the Lions in T20 cricket on Sunday
Kwena Maphaka is on the fast track to superstardom. On Sunday, 17 March 2024, he bowled his best over in his nascent career.
After a watchful first two overs, Tony de Zorzi decided that if he was going to target a bowler in the Powerplay, he would rather take on Kwena Maphaka's pace than risk going after Bjorn Fortuin. Fortuin is a shrewd operator, Maphaka had conceded runs at 9.25 and compensated with a single wicket in his previous match. There was a chance de Zorzi could smash the 17-year-old out of the attack.
In the year that de Zorzi made his semi-pro debut for the Northerns, Maphaka was breaking helmet grills with short balls. Literally. A year later, Maphaka was enrolling in the DJ Coaching Academy while de Zorzi caught fire and scored a 57-ball 106 for the Titans in a T20 match in the Abu Dhabi T20 Trophy in the UAE.
Maphaka sent in a length delivery on the fifth stump line. De Zorzi swung hard. The ball shaped away and de Zorzi whiffed. The second delivery was a carbon copy of the first, as were de Zorzi’s intentions. The results were also the same. The opener didn’t make contact and the ball sailed to Ryan Rickelton, who was keeping wicket for the Lions.
Marco Jansen's story feels incomplete if you tell it without mentioning his deliveries to Virat Kohli at the Wanderers nets in 2018. Back then, a 17-year-old Jansen beat Kohli’s bat three times in a row outside off-stump. Maphaka's story is incomplete without mentioning his deliveries to Temba Bavuma in 2022.
The Lions were preparing for a T20 triangular series against Namibia and Lahore Qalandars. Maphaka was in the extended squad, more for the experience than anything else. The teenager sent down three successive deliveries to the Proteas Test captain, all just short of good length. They soared on the pitch and took Bavuma by surprise. Three is a charm.
Maphaka has a few variations in his arsenal. The third delivery was slower and pitched on a back of a length. De Zorzi misread it. He swung hard and missed it. The ball swung back into the batter, narrowly missing the off-stump as it sailed into Rickelton’s gloves.
De Zorzi marked his guard again and prepared himself for the next one. Three swings and three misses meant that Western Province was on 17/1 after 3.3 overs. They needed to get a move on if they were going to make use of the fielding restrictions in the powerplay.
The fourth delivery was fuller. De Zorzi moved from middle to third stump to get himself in position to hit the ball over the in-field. He swung across his pads but made no contact. The ball crashed onto his front pad. Maphaka had snared him lbw.
Normally, I ask you to support the newsletter, but at the moment, I have a bigger ask, if you can spare a little bit, please contribute to my son’s cancer treatment and recovery, and please share the link:
The next batter in was Kyle Verreynne. Verreynne is a man for a crisis. The wicketkeeper attended Wynberg College, Jacques Kallis’ alma mater, on a Jacques Kallis scholarship. During his time there, Verreynne made a habit of digging the school out of a myriad of holes. He was the captain and lone batter in a team of 11. During the SA20, Verreynne found himself with the unenviable burden of rebuilding the Pretoria Capitals’ innings with the tail in the sixth over.
The Pretoria side was on 42/6 after 5.4 overs. Verreynne played a scintillating unbeaten knock of 116 from 52 balls. He almost chased down MI Cape Town’s total singlehandedly. He was asked to do the same here, only now Western Province was setting a total, not chasing one. But, he had to face Kwena Maphaka first. The first delivery he faced was full, from around the wicket. Verreynne defended it to the fielder.
The next one was also dead on target, full and aimed at the middle stump. Verreynne could do nothing more than defend it to mid-off. Maphaka had bowled a wicket-maiden in the Powerplay, this was to be the only maiden of the match. It could have been Maphaka's best over of the match. It wasn't.
After Maphaka dismissed de Zorzi in the fourth over, the Lions went on to restrict Western Province to 127/9. The Lions were looking good for a comfortable chase before rain came and then lightning, forcing two breaks in the game and revised totals. Then Wayne Parnell defended eight runs in the last over to force a Super Over. The Lions batted first and this time, Parnell conceded 10 runs.
Maphaka started playing cricket because his brother, Tetelo, needed someone with whom to play backyard cricket. There is a six-year age gap between the two siblings and back then, 10-year-old Tetelo didn’t have to put his back into his bowling to get his younger brother out. He dismissed Maphaka in the first 15 or so minutes and played a chanceless innings that lasted until he got tired. For hours, Maphaka would do his best impression of bowling only to be made to chase leather.
13 years later, he doesn’t give runs easily. Wim Jansen, his coach St Stithians, has been marvelling at his accuracy since 2021, the year Maphaka started playing first-XI cricket for the school. More often than not, Maphaka lands his deliveries where he intends. That’s why Bjorn Fortuin trusted him with the Super Over.
Western Province had Verreynne and the pinch-hitter George Linde at the crease. Linde to face the first delivery. Maphaka sent down an inch-perfect yorker. Linde squeezed it out for a single.
The yorker became synonymous with Maphaka during the Under-19 World Cup. He put the toe-crunching delivery to good use and was rewarded with a bag of wickets for his accuracy. Batters have studied him and come to expect it. With the yorker out of the way, Maphaka went for his stock ball, a fast length delivery. Verreynne was batting outside leg stump. Maphaka sent across the delivery and Verreynne swung his bat at but failed to make contact — dot ball.
Wim Jansen jokes that God has a sense of humour. He gives some athletes a lot of talent but not much in the brains department and endows the less talented people with high-functioning brains. But with Maphaka, God decided to hand the boy both. The teenager shows a level of maturity that belies his age. Western Province needed 10 runs off four balls. Maphaka wasn’t about to let the batters line him up. His third delivery was different from the first two, it was fuller and angled onto the stumps. Verreynne squeezed one run.
The equation was now nine from three. A boundary would swing the match in favour of Western Province. A single or a dot ball would put pressure on the batters. Linde exposed all three of his stumps, daring Maphaka to aim for them. Maphaka refused to be sucked into the mind games, he followed Linde with a full toss that cramped Linde for room. 2 runs.
T20 cricket slows down exponentially in the death overs and super overs. Every delivery is an event, after which the captains consult with bowlers and senior members of the team on which delivery and field is appropriate. While this works in most cases, it also telegraphs the bowler’s next delivery. Fortuin kept more or less the same field, with minor changes.
Western Province needed seven from two. Fortuin kept the same field. Linde remained outside leg stump, all three poles exposed. Maphaka ran in and bowled the same delivery as the previous one. Linde didn’t have enough room to get good contact with the ball and it rolled straight to the fielder at cover for a single.
Six from one. Maphaka’s first duty was to bowl a legal delivery. He held his nerve, ran in and fired in a full one, aimed at middle stump. Verreynne swiped at it and made contact. The Lions batters were already celebrating as the ball ran to the boundary for four. Maphaka had successfully defended 10 runs. His best over of the match had cost nine runs.
If you found this interesting, please share it:
You can support Stumped! by leaving a tip:
Thanks for reading. Until next time… - CS