South Africa’s pace prodigy Kwena Maphaka opened up after dismissing Pakistan’s ace batter Babar Azam thrice in the recently contested all-format series between the two teams.
Maphaka, who had a bleak First-Class and List-A experience, was picked by South Africa for all three formats as they were missing their key bowlers due to injury.
The 18-year-old justified his selection with exceptional bowling performances and consistently clocked speeds of more than 150 kph.
His disciplined bowling effort allowed him to dismiss Babar once in each of the three formats, highlighting his prowess with the ball.
Meanwhile, during an interview with an Indian newspaper, Kwena Maphaka hailed Babar Azam as ‘one of the greats’ before sharing that he tries to remain unfazed by the stature of the batter he is bowling to and keeps it simple.
“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.”
For the unversed, the right-arm pacer has played one Test, two ODIs and five T20Is for South Africa, picking up 13 wickets across formats with the best bowling figures of 4/72 which came on his ODI debut against Pakistan in Cape Town last month.
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