BREVIS SHINES AS MI CAPE TOWN CRUSHES CAPITALS IN DOMINANT DISPLAY

After two weeks of ball dominating bat, the willow wielders claimed back their rightful place in Betway SA20 at a balmy Centurion on Friday evening.

In an extraordinary and unforgettable passage of play, Reeza Hendricks and Dewald Brevis delivered an unbroken 142-run partnership off only 68 balls for MI Cape Town that not only killed off Pretoria Capitals’ chances of qualifying for the playoffs but showed the value of an experience hand guiding young talent out in the middle.

Brevis’ precocious talents are, of course, world renowned. It’s been shouted off the rooftops since he was just a little boy.

But the challenge for the 21-year-old has been to find a method of converting that potential into consistent performance.

Often the enthusiasm of youth has led to disappointment with Brevis eager to explore his entire skill set before actually assessing the conditions.

Having Hendricks at the other end - 15 years Brevis’ senior - however provided the calming influence he needed to bottle up all that energy before exploding later on.

“It was the first time we've batted together, me and Razzle, but I loved spending time with him out there. We were calm, just watching the ball, and staying in the moment,” Brevis said.

“There was a time where I told him I think I need to go down on my one knee and try to like slog sweep or like hit it behind square, like lap it, and then he told me: ‘No, just focus on hitting it straight!’”

The outcome was incredible with Brevis stroking half a dozen sixes on the night during his 32-ball unbeaten 73 with a couple of maximums heading gun barrel straight over the bowler’s head and against the sight screen. 

It is certainly noteworthy that Brevis left the lap shot, which was of course the trademark of his idol AB de Villiers’ 360-degree game, in the locker at Centurion for he finally feels that he is maturing into his own person and not being moulded into “the next AB”.

 “I think we all know cricket as a sport, it all is a bit of a roller coaster. You have your ups, you have your downs, but I absolutely like where I'm now,” Brevis said. 

“The one thing that I'm focusing on is to be Dewald and to play and be consistent how I want to play and that's basically how I played when I got onto the scene and even before that in school, so I'm working on ways to be consistent in that way.

“There was a phase where I listened to a lot of people and I tried to be too clever trying to figure out the game. 

“The main thing is - I'm not going to say the word what I'm doing - but there's something I'm doing and that leads me to being Dewald Brevis.

“That’s the main thing I want to do is just play with a smile, enjoy being on the field, whether it's fielding, bowling, batting. I just want to be good for the team.”

Brevis has certainly contributed to MI Cape Town surging to the top of the Betway SA20 table with more than just the bat.

He was sensational in the field in the previous match against the Sunrisers Eastern Cape at Newlands where he claimed a one-handed blinder on the boundary and has regularly chipped in with a couple of wickets.

His leg-spin bowling has certainly developed in leaps and bounds and Brevis attributes it to the work done behind the scenes with the Mumbai Indians support staff and MICT captain Rashid Khan.

“If there's only one person, I can give the credit to its Rahul Sanghvi that I've been working the last three years with at IPL and here.

“It’s so special, like he lights the fire inside me up with my leg spin and he helps me a lot. We stay in touch throughout the year. 

“I bowled thousands of balls at the IPL and thousands of balls here. I would love to bowl more at Titans but it's nice to have their support here with Rash as well.

“We talk so much about bowling. We warm up together. I watch how he does things. We speak and yeah, it's great to have him as a captain and as a leg-spinner to almost give me a go and back me out there. It’s really fun. I love bowling!”

Just like MI Cape Town have discovered their unique identity which helped them turn the corner in Season 3, we may just be witnessing a similar metamorphosis with Brevis which will see him bloom from hereon.