• Home
  • Who Said What
  • Keep Your Head Up Champ Dwayne Bravo Consoles Debutant Kwena Maphaka

'Keep Your Head Up Champ!' Dwayne Bravo Consoles Debutant Kwena Maphaka

South African U-19 quick Kwena Maphaka struggled on his IPL debut [X.com]South African U-19 quick Kwena Maphaka struggled on his IPL debut [X.com]

Former West Indies and Chennai Super Kings (CSK) all-rounder Dwayne Bravo came up with a consoling and encouraging post for expensive Mumbai Indians (MI) debut Kwene Maphaka after his poor first IPL 2024 outing against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) on Wednesday.

Fast-tracked into reckoning in the toughest domestic T20 league by the Mumbai franchise after the young South African U-19 pacer lit up the recent junior World Cup, Maphaka faced a brutal assault by the 2016 champions and conceded woeful and dispiriting figures of 0/66 off his 4 overs as MI gave away a record team score of 277/3 in their loss. 

The baptism by fire would've jolted the 17-year-old talented pacer's confidence and seeped huge doubts in his headspace. 

However, Maphaka found timely support from Bravo, who graciously left a message on Instagram for the raw speedster and backed the South African prodigy to realise his capabilities in the coming games. 


Bravo Consoles Maphaka After Expensive IPL Debut 

"Keep your head up Champ! Kwena Maphaka I’m sure you will definitely bounce back and don’t let this one off game make you start to doubt yourself, it’s a great challenge for you and you will only get better as the tournament goes on!" Bravo posted on Instagram. 

In a big jump from youth cricket, Maphaka became one of the rare overseas cricketers to make a first-choice playing XI in the IPL despite having no experience at the international stage. The pacer had been called in after injury concerns to Jason Behrendorff and Dilshan Madushanka. 


">


Maphaka was the stand-out young talent at the ICC U-19 World Cup 2024 with his pace and hostility as well as the ability to generate late swing while employing his variations with great command in the end-overs phase. 

The teenage sensation finished as the top wicket-taker of the biannual tournament, bagging an astonishing 21 scalps in just six outings.