Kwena Maphaka reflects on dismissing Babar Azam three times

South Africa's rising fast bowler, Kwena Maphaka, has spoken about his recent success in dismissing Pakistan’s star batter, Babar Azam, three times during their recent series across all formats.

At just 18 years old, Maphaka had limited experience in First-Class and List-A cricket before being selected for South Africa’s national team, as the team was missing some key bowlers due to injuries. Despite this, Maphaka impressed everyone with his fast bowling, regularly bowling at speeds over 150 kph. His consistent performances led him to dismiss Babar Azam in all three formats of the series.

In an interview with an Indian newspaper, Maphaka praised Babar Azam, calling him “one of the greats of this generation.” He explained that he tries not to be intimidated by the reputation of the batsman he is facing and keeps things simple when bowling.

“Firstly, Babar is definitely one of the greats of this generation. I think he's an incredible batter,” said Maphaka. “We had plans for him, just like we do with every other batter. I really just think of it as a bowler versus a batter. Whether you're bowling to an Under-19 player or Babar Azam, at the end of the day, you're still trying to get the batter out. So I just try to keep it as simple as possible and stick to the plans that we had for him. It worked out really well.”

Maphaka has already made an impact in international cricket, having played one Test, two One Day Internationals (ODIs), and five T20 Internationals (T20Is) for South Africa. In these matches, he has taken 13 wickets, with his best bowling figures being 4/72 on his ODI debut against Pakistan in Cape Town last month.