Proteas bowling coach Piet Botha with a few Test cricket pointers for Kwena Maphaka

IT could be easy to forget that Kwena Maphaka, 19, has only played five First-Class matches in his career, of which two of those games have been Test matches.

Because of the potential he possesses, the raw pace and aggression he shows, the expectations for the youngster to perform at the highest level are high.

As a result, when the left-arm quick failed to pick up a single wicket in the first Test between the Proteas and Zimbabwe in Bulawayo last week, there was a sense of disappointment.

In his spells in both innings, the youngster struggled to bowl the disciplined lines and lengths one would associate with Test cricket.

Instead, he bowled a lot of bouncers, slower balls and yorkers, a set of skills that would most likely work in the shorter formats of the game, while in Test cricket, the consistent off-stump line at a good length usually does the job.

Proteas bowling coach Piet Botha told the media yesterday that Maphaka is in the process of learning this skill of bowling the disciplined lines and lengths for long periods of time.

"It's important that he understands that that's part of the process, that he needs to get to that level where you look even at the best bowlers in the world, they hit that top of off-stump line and a good length," said Botha.

"Even the fastest bowlers in the world like Mitchell Stark, you can see once a bowler like that maybe loses his line length, you can score off guys like that.

"With Kwena, because he's got the pace and you're playing on good wickets generally in Test cricket if you get it slightly wrong, the batters will be on top of you. So he understands that. We've spoken about it.

"We've worked out some training methods for him. So it's basically just getting your body conducive or conditioned to bowling that disciplined line and length for long periods.

"You need to play a lot of cricket to go through that, and also from a practice point of view, we need to pay attention to small things like that when we practise. So that's also been discussed with him and that's part of our progress plan for Kwena."

Moreover, Botha believes that the youngster will get better with time as he gathers more experience in red ball cricket.

"Realistically, he's only played five First-Class games and that includes two Test matches. Ultimately, as a coach, you can do a lot in terms of talking to a person, and working with him technically, but he needs to pick up experience.

"That's the most important for all of us who've played cricket," Botha told the media yesterday.

"You learn as you play. For him, it's just about getting a lot more Four-Day cricket and Five-Day cricket under the belt and then he'll improve because as he's in the environment, as he goes through his experiences, he'll also work things out for himself.

"We can talk through things. We had a good chat this morning. It's all about just that exposure and making sure that he learns as he goes and he picks up his confidence as he goes."

With the 328-run victory in the first Test, South Africa are 1-0 up in the series and head into the second and final Test this week in search of a series whitewash.

The second Test is set to get underway tomorrow in Bulawayo.