Teenage batting sensation Dewald Brevis hit the highest ever T20 score by a South African player in the CSA T20 Challenge on Monday, October 31, with his knock including 26 boundaries.

The 19-year-old smashed 162 at Potchefstroom for the Titans, the joint third highest T20 score ever and with a higher strike-rate than any of those above him at 284.21. Opening the innings, Brevis started off slowly with a single before launching his assault, taking two fours from the final balls of the first over, bowled by Mbulelo Budaza.

His real acceleration started six overs in. He took 24 off Jacques Snyman, taking advantage of a no ball by scoring a six off the free hit. Brevis’s first fifty came off just 18 balls, and he took just one fewer deliver to reach the three-figure mark putting him into the top ten fastest hundred scorers in all T20 cricket.

Brevis’s technique and six-hitting ability during his monumental innings were that of someone far more experienced and decorated, showing his remarkable talent which many first saw for South Africa in the U-19 World Cup where he was the leading run scorer. Keeping still at the crease and positioning his head firmly over the ball, he was able to take advantage any loose bowling on offer, reaching the furthest rows back in the stands as he carted the ball around the stadium and highlighting why he has been compared to AB de Villiers.

Another 17 balls after his hundred, Brevis brought up his 150*, just the 14th batter in T20 cricket to achieve the feat, bringing up the score with yet another six. Just two balls after he was caught off a waist-high no-ball, Brevis was finally sent back to the dug-out, caught by Patrick Kruger off Gerald Coetzee, finishing with 13 sixes, the highest in an innings for any T20 batter in South Africa and joint-highest for any South African. The Titans finished their innings three wickets down with 271 on the scoreboard, the fourth highest T20 score ever, and the second highest in a domestic game.

Coming out to bat the Knights never had a realistic chance of winning, but put on a remarkable effort by getting to 230, perhaps demonstrating the flatness of the pitch and standard of bowling on offer from both sides. The 501 runs scored in the match are the most scored in any T20 match, with the third-most sixes across both sides.

Brevis also had his say in the field, taking a spectacular catch on the boundary to dismiss Coetzee. With the ball set to fly over the rope for a six, Brevis leapt in the air, pulling the ball back over the rope before diving forward to take the catch on the rebound, a catch that would’ve been an incredible achievement in it’s own right had he not played the innings of his life beforehand. To finish his all-round performance, he took the wicket of Migael Pretorius with his final ball of the day.