Dewald Brevis’s utterly incredible 125 not out off 56 balls in the second T20I against Australia was described by his captain Aiden Markram as a “freakish display” of his talent, which has been spoken of since his days in Under-19 cricket. He broke the record for highest score by a South African in a T20I match, held by Faf du Plessis since 2015. Brevis said after the match that he sees the innings as only the beginning for him.
“This is just the start, if I could say it like that,” he told reporters. “I just want to keep working hard, do the same things and the next match is the next match. So this 100, I can enjoy it now, think a bit about it, watch it maybe, but then when the next match comes, it’s completely a new match and anything can happen.”
Brevis may have drawn comparisons to South Africa great AB de Villiers as a teenager, which led to him being known as ‘Baby AB’. However, a majority of his shots during his epic knock on Tuesday were clean strikes in the V, whereas De Villiers got the nickname of “Mr.360” due to his ability to hit to all parts of the ground. De Villiers and fellow South Africa legend Dale Steyn were among those who expressed their amazement on their social media handles, with the former also saying that a number of Indian Premier League (IPL) teams missed out on a chance to sign Brevis in the 2024 IPL auction. Brevis had gone unsold and ended up starring for Chennai Super Kings when the franchise signed him on as an injury substitute.
Brevis said that the way he played in Darwin was his “natural” style of batting. “I’ve hit thousands of balls and I just want to go out there, enjoy it and have fun and just watch it and then if it’s there, it happens. I don’t try to do it, I’m just trying to be myself and have fun and watch the ball and then it happens,” he said.
Brevis, however, said that he decided to be himself and stick to his way of batting only about eight months ag0. “I believe God blessed me with a talent to play like that, to play aggressively. Last year, on 28 December, I made that commitment. I got a few people, they know who they are, who I trust and the main thing was just to be the original Dewald and to be on that side of it and every ball, wherever it is, to watch it and to hit it,” he said.
