Mumbai Indians pacer Kwena Maphaka registers the most expensive figures on IPL debut
Mumbai Indians pacer Kwena Maphaka had a forgettable outing on his maiden IPL appearance on Wednesday at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad. The youngster leaked an eye-watering 66 in his four overs along with three extras in the form of wides against the SunRisers Hyderabad.
The South African pacer caught the cricketing fraternity's attention by topping the wicket-taking charts in the U19 World Cup, picking up 21 scalps in six matches. Hence, the Mumbai Indians signed Maphaka as a replacement for the injured Sri Lankan seamer Dilshan Madushanka.
He played against the SunRisers Hyderabad in place of Luke Wood on Wednesday and took the new ball, bowling a decent first over for seven runs. However, things went awry in his second over as Travis Head hammered Maphaka for 22 runs on his way to 62 off 24 deliveries. Abhishek Sharma, Heinrich Klaasen, and Aiden Markram also dispatched him for runs, thereby leading the 17-year-old to go wicketless.
Kwena Maphaka proves to be the most expensive bowler as Mumbai Indians set a record target
Only Hardik Pandya, Piyush Chawla, and Gerald Coetzee were among the wickets for the Mumbai Indians as the SunRisers pummelled them at home. In the process, they broke an 11-year-old record set by the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB).
By amassing a total of 277-3, the Orange Army have gone past RCB's previous record of the highest-ever total in the IPL of 263. Meanwhile, the highest-ever run-chase was by the Rajasthan Royals of 224 runs in the 2020 edition in the UAE. Hence, Hardik Pandya's men will need a massive effort to chase down the total of 278.
The 2016 champions made two changes, bringing in Head for Marco Jansen and swapping T Natarajan for Jaydev Unadkat against MI. Mumbai Indians, meanwhile, made only one change.
Both Mumbai and SunRisers are coming off narrow defeats to the Gujarat Titans and Kolkata Knight Riders are searching for their first points.