Sixes over cow corner
When Dewald Brevis is in the zone, you can expect shots in cow corner
The fielders might have had their feet stuck in buckets of cement. They couldn't move to stop the balls and when they managed to move, they weren't plugging the flood of runs. Dewald Brevis picked the length early and moved into good positions so much that he had 16 dot balls off the 69 deliveries he addressed.
Hennopspark made 239 from 25 overs, and Brevis scored 115 of the runs. He carved, flayed, cut, pulled and creamed balls with authority on his way to 15 fours. He also smacked three sixes, all on the leg side - one in the cow corner region.
Cricket legend states that in the 19th century, the cricket field at Dulwich College had an area where cattle herders and shepherds 'parked' cows and other livestock to catch a game. The animals grazed and took shelter in that spot because there was minimal foot traffic and activity.
Proper batters did not target that region, and tailenders accidentally sent balls that way. That changed with the advent of limited-overs cricket. Players targeted unmanned areas to maximise on runs.
Brevis is a child of the modern game and when he is at the crease, you are guaranteed traffic in that region. It is possible that when he was 10 and shot Hennopspark to victory over Cornwall Hill, maybe his maximum over cow corner was not by design, probably accidental. However, since then, he appears to have taken a liking to that area.
Eight years after the tie against Cornwall Hill, Brevis was stronger and had added a few arrows to his quiver. He showed his burgeoning skillset in a match for Laudium CC.
The match had shades of an inspiring sports movie. Their opposition, CBC, was well organised. They had a complete team kit, from tracksuits to playing gear. They looked like a unit. Laudium, on the other hand, was a mishmash. The flannels were different shades of white and had different badges on their pockets. Five guys, including Brevis, had Laudium shirts, two had different generations of Titans tops and the rest had white tops.
Laudium was the underdog. CBC went in bat first. Laudium pulled together to restrict them to 237/6 in 40 overs. Laudium started slow and was behind the required run rate when they lost Fawaaz Gallie in the seventh over. They were on 26/1 when Brevis walked out to bat. He wrested control of the match with a 107-run second-wicket partnership with Steve Mahlangu.
Laudium needed 36 runs to win in 10 overs when Brevis was dismissed. By then, he had smashed a brilliant 138 off 88. 10-year-old Brevis hadn't just swung for the fences. He also ran 31 singles. The 18-year-old version rotated the strike half as much, he was in an unforgiving mood.
Brevis’ commitment to the SA u19 team and school cricket meant he was unavailable for Laudium for most of their 2021 campaign. However, he was available for the highly strung encounter against CBC. That was his only match for them for the season. Despite that, he struck the joint fourth-most sixes of the season.
He launched three over the cover region and lifted one above the fielder at third. The other four were on the leg side. One crashed into the sliding windows by the bar, startling drinking patrons. Three flew into the mid-wicket-cow corner region. He also carved 17 fours.
There are a few signs of whether or not Dewald Brevis is at the peak of his powers. One of them is his execution of the cover drive. The other is the six over cow corner.
Dewald Brevis did not have a great 2023-24 season. He also didn’t have a bad one. He showed glimpses of brilliance and looked untouchable in some matches and bombed in others.
Cricket is a sport designed around failure. According to popular culture, S-tier batters are successful a third of the time they visit the crease. Brevis' situation wasn't down to the normal ebbs and flows of the game. Something was missing from his game. In August, he placed a call to Deon Botes.
Brevis and Botes have orbited each other’s planets since 2015. Brevis first met Botes when he attended a Blue Bulls rugby camp at Affies. The experience convinced him that the institution was the best suit for him. It wasn’t long before Botes noticed the youngster’s high potential for cricket.
“The thing that I liked about Deon is that he never praised Dewald too much. He always challenged him to improve. That, for me, was brilliant. You know, a youngster should never have a big head. That was critical. He recognised good performances and did compliment him, but he always gave him something to work on and improve on,” Okker, Brevis’ father, shared.
“We’ve got a special bond. He’s known me since the age of 12. He’s seen me develop. He’s basically seen me playing the way I should play,” Brevis added.
During the COVID-forced lockdown, Botes made numerous trips to the Brevis home to throw balls to the youngster. The August call resulted in a three-day repeat of those days. Coach and student commandeered the Paul Roos indoor centre for the 28th, 29th, and 30th of December.
Unlike in 2021, Botes didn’t use the sidearm a lot. Throwing over 2000 balls in 72 would have left his arm in tatters. Botes only threw to Brevis in the afternoon session on the 29th and part of the 30th. The bowling machine did the rest. Brevis faced so many deliveries he developed blisters. The 21-year-old batted through the discomfort brought on by the blisters.
However, while repetition was an integral part of their three days together, Botes and Brevis weren’t just focused on the volume of deliveries faced. They dismantled his entire game and went to basics. According to Botes, it was important for Brevis to understand his technique better, and that was the only way.
Their first port of call was focusing on his strengths. Botes landed countless deliveries in areas where Brevis could express his strengths and the 21-year-old played the same shot again and again. If it meant creaming 500 cover drives, Botes made sure it happened.
“The important thing was for him to get into good positions, strong positions, to put the bowler under pressure,” Botes explained.
They worked on Brevis being still for a little longer, creating room for himself and playing with a straight bat.
“When he struggled many people came to him with advice on what to do. Instead of accepting or discounting all of it, we put it to the test. We did drills to see if it works for him,” Botes shared.
The Paul Roos indoor centre was a perfect space for Brevis to rediscover his game. It is a closed space. Brevis could express himself to Botes with freedom. According to the coach, there was no right or wrong idea. They put everything to the test and if Dewald wanted more time to get it right, that’s what they did.
“It was a safe space, away from the noise. The important thing was not to be right, but to find what works for him,” Botes shared.
Their cricket conversations weren’t limited to the centre, though. Brevis is a student of the game, so they talked cricket at breakfast, over lunch and at dinner. Talking cricket helped the 21-year-old to understand things better.
Liam Dawson’s delivery was targeted at middle and leg. It was a smidge short. The hours of repetition from December kicked in and Brevis opened his stance before he pummeled the ball over cow corner. That was the 13th delivery he faced in the SA20 2025 season opener between MICape Town and Sunrisers Eastern Cape. It was an ominous sign for the opposition.
The 21-year-old seemed to be batting on a different surface from everyone else as he romped to the first half-century of the season, 57 off 29 deliveries. His strike rate of 196.55 was leagues ahead of everyone else. He didn’t just shine in the first match, Brevis finished the season with an average of 48.5 at a strike rate of 184.18. Those figures were chalk and cheese compared to his returns in 2024: an average of 18.75 at 140.19.
As good as these numbers look, they do not fully describe how good Brevis was during the SA20. So we turn to the Good Areas algorithm. According to them, Brevis had a true average of 26.2 and a true strike rate of 52.9. That is top-tier batting. He had an impact of 68.95. That is second to Ryan Rickelton’s impact of 88. Put simply, no other batters had as much an impact in the tournament as Rickelton and Brevis.
The 21-year-old carried that form into the CSA One-Day Challenge where he penciled the second-most runs in the tournament. Jon-Jon Smuts led the pack with 473 runs in nine innings for an average of 52.55 at a strike rate of 91.13.
Brevis made 398 in seven innings for an average of 66.33 at 157.07. His average was the second-best among the top 10 run-scorers and his strike rate was the highest for anyone who faced bowlers in the competition. He rammed 31 sixes and 21 fours. Lhuan-Dre Pretorius, who notched the fifth-most runs, struck the second-most maximums with 17.
Anyone who watched the matches will tell you that Brevis struck a few into cow corner. He has been in full flow since December.