Dewald Brevis made 99 and 148 in consecutive innings in the CSA 4-Day Series Division 1, South Africa’s premier first-class competition.
Brevis had smashed a 110-ball 99 in the third innings against Western Province at Centurion. The Titans had trailed by only 25 in the first innings, but they collapsed to only 211 in the second as Jody Lawrence returned 4-39. Barring Brevis, no other batter had reached 30.
The Titans hit back to reduce Western Province to 15-2, but Tony de Zorzi (78 not out) and David Bedingham (67) added 123 to complete a chase of 187 without much fuss.
Read: Dewald Brevis – 'I want to be the best cricketer that has ever lived'
North West amassed 345 in Brevis’s next match, at the same venue. In response, Brevis joined Keegan Petersen at 5-2, and dominated the third-wicket stand. By the time he fell for a 155-ball 148 (17 fours, five sixes), the pair had added 245. After missing his hundred by a run, thus, Brevis missed 150 by two runs.
The innings lifted Brevis’s first-class average past the 40-mark: from 38.14 it rose to 41.93 over the course of one innings. Sometimes called “Baby AB” because of his similarity with AB de Villiers, Brevis has never played Test cricket, though he has played twice for South Africa A against Sri Lanka A: he made 16 and 20 at Pallekele in 2023, and 49 and 74 at Benoni in 2024.
Petersen continued to make 112, while captain Neil Brand (who had led South Africa in Test cricket in 2024) hit 82 not out. Brand declared on 463-9. At stumps on day three, North West openers Lesiba Ngoepe (10 not out) and Matthew Kleinveldt (27 not out) had cleared 46 of the 118-run deficit without being parted.
Marked as a teenage prodigy, Brevis was named Player of the Tournament at the 2022 Under-19 World Cup in the West Indies and earned an IPL contract with the Mumbai Indians. He has played for three teams of the MI franchise, at Mumbai (IPL), Cape Town (SA20), and New York (MLC). His two T20Is in 2023/24, however, fetched him only five runs.
