Talk of The Town
SA20 and Dewald Brevis have people talking
SA20 promised exciting cricket. On day one of the tournament, Dewald Brevis made true to the promise. The 19-year-old is the talk of the town.
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If you know a bit about chess, you probably know about Adolf Anderssen and Lionel Kieseritzky and the Immortal Game. They played it in 1851. The Immortal Game was played during a break in the action at a tournament. It was a game for fun, and Anderssen used the moment to create something immortal. He had a moment of brilliance that lasted six moves.
Anderssen sacrificed both his rooks, his bishop and then his queen in order to get a checkmate.
Had it not been a game for fun, it is possible that presented with the same scenario, Anderssen might not have made the same decisions and played the same moves. He would have overthought everything and unnecessarily complicated things for himself. Brilliance is easy to conjure up when you are having fun.
South Africa’s wunderkind, Dewald Brevis, was having fun in the first SA20 match, and he was not short of moments of brilliance. There was that six he hit off Cody Yusuf. Brevis stepped across his stumps to send Yusuf’s delivery back over Yusuf’s head. On the next delivery, he carved Yusuf over mid-wicket for a four. That was just brilliant.
A couple of overs later, he made a shot that is so good you can make a gif out of it. He dispatched Ferisco Adams over long-on. After 11.1 overs, Brevis smashed Adams over mid-wicket. After 14.3 overs, Brevis picked up a slower ball from Yusuf and dumped it over the bowler’s head for a six. He followed up the six with four clipped past deep mid-wicket. Brevis made it 14 runs off three balls when he made room for himself and crunched the ball over extra cover. It was brilliant batting.
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Back in the day, the most difficult thing to do at Grey High School was to bat after Graeme Pollock. The next batter in after Graeme Pollock walked to the crease drowned by the sound of cars hooting to acknowledge another great Pollock innings. As the next batter took guard, the engines would start up and by the time he scored his first run, the ground was once again empty.
This is not a Graeme Pollock/Dewald Brevis comparison. But, after watching Brevis a few times, I now understand that behaviour. After seeing what 19-year-old Brevis does when he plays, it is difficult to stay engaged when another batter comes to the crease. It’s hard to imagine how anyone who watched Brevis bat against Easterns in 2021 would have stuck around to watch other batters after his dismissal. He was 18 and hitting big sixes against the wind off the bowling of Division 2 bowlers.
Imagine watching the Knights batters attempt to chase 272 runs for victory after Dewald Brevis had scored a 57-ball 162. It was anti-climactic.
By definition, art is “an expression of human creative skill and imagination producing works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty and/or emotional power.” Shane Warne’s leggies were art. Lionel Messi’s feints and dribbling are art. An Aiden Markram cover drive and backfoot shots are art. Virat Kohli’s gravity-defying shot during the 2022 T20 World Cup was art.
Dewald Brevis’ batting is art. His technique is very orthodox, probably a result of the declaration and 50-over cricket he played at Affies. It provided the foundations for his game. But, not all his shots are orthodox, he is AB-sque in that manner. It’s easy to see why the Baby AB moniker exists. And like most modern cricketers, Brevis is an excellent power-hitter. He is not a slogger, but one of the cleanest strikers of the ball. He middles it exceptionally well. His power-hitting has shades of a younger Rilee Rossouw.
Brevis is 19 and plays the no-look shot with the ability of an older and more mature batter because of his ability to keep his head still and in a good position.
Brevis is young and still discovering his game. Watching him is like watching the creation of a masterpiece. He gets better with each outing. “This was probably the best innings of Dewald’s professional career,” says Deon Botes, Brevis’ former coach at Affies. More mature, that’s how Botes describes it. “Brevis history-making 162-run knock pales in comparison to this one because this one was better structured. Brevis took less risks and picked the right shots to attack.”
