South African teen who modelled his game off Instagram vids of Proteas legend makes waves with 57-ball knock featuring 13 sixes
'Baby AB' Brevis blasts way into T20 record books
South Africa's teenage batting prodigy Dewald Brevis put the world on notice with a blistering 57-ball 162 yesterday, then revealed he learned the game studying videos of AB de Villiers on short-form social media platform Instagram.
The 19-year-old wrote a new chapter in an already burgeoning reputation when he torched bowlers for 13 sixes and as many boundaries in a domestic T20 match in Potchefstroom.
The knock was the joint third-highest individual score in T20 history, behind only Chris Gayle and Aaron Finch.
Gayle holds the world record for the highest T20 innings when he smashed 17 sixes in his 175no from 66 balls for IPL franchise Royal Challengers Bangalore in 2013, while Australia's T20 skipper Finch hit 172 for Australia against Zimbabwe in Bulawayo in mid-2018.
Brevis announced himself at the start of the year with a stunning U19 World Cup with 506 runs in six games, the most in the tournament's history, and was then part of a three-way bidding war at the IPL auction where the then 18-year-old was bought by the Mumbai Indians for about A$500,000.
Nicknamed 'Baby AB' given his stance and shots bear a striking resemblance to the South African legend, Brevis revealed it was intentional imitation.
"From young, and still now, I watch lots of videos on Instagram about AB and all these guys, how they hit the ball," Brevis told the host broadcaster.
"I like AB's natural bat swing and back in your head, you get a visual of how the ball goes, how the bat falls and everything. So I try to watch as most as much as possible, and to just also be myself."
A part-time leg-spinner, with 12 wickets in his 32-game career so far, Brevis also modelled that part of his action on another icon of the game.
"That's how I started bowling leg-spin, I watched Shane Warne bowl," he told reporters. "It's something that comes naturally I would say, and it's just loving the game, I really love the game and I love to watch videos of players."
While some pundits call for Brevis to be rushed into international cricket, Brevis is content to bide his time on the domestic circuit. He played seven games in his debut IPL season, and the Mumbai Indians have snapped him up for their franchise in South Africa's new T20 league, launching in January.
He has also played for St Kitts and Nevis in the CPL, and will soon be headed to Sri Lanka for the Lanka Premier League.
"This is a next stepping stone," Brevis said in response to questions about his international ambitions. "I believe that the people in control they know the best and everything works out as it should.
"This is where I have to be, I have to do this, this is part of my journey, I am at the right place where I need to be. We never know what happens."
But hitting the ball – and hard – remains his true love.
"I'm always looking to hit boundaries. I think that's a very important thing in playing fearlessly and aggressively is to be in a very strong position," Brevis said.
"And if the ball is there, you take it on."
While most stars would have come to T20 cricket through a pathway of playing 50-over games, Brevis has gone the other way, bred on a diet of T10 cricket.
"In T10 cricket there's less balls, so there's more pressure on you to score from the start," Brevis explained.
"So it learns you to adapt and to find ways in your strengths in how to get runs, so it's batting quick in T10s and then when you go to T20 cricket it's just a small little adjustment, but you're still always positive and looking to score every single ball."
Brevis brought up his fifty from 18 balls, and had a century by 35 balls – the joint fifth-fastest in T20 history – and 17 balls later had reached 150.
"I always keep everything the same, I'm Dewald and I'm true to my game, how I play, my strengths. I'll always be true to that."
Brevis's 162 helped the Titans post 3-271 from their 20 overs, while their opposition, the Knights, were hardly a slouch in replying with 9-230.
Although the winning margin was a comfortable 41-runs, the match aggregate score of 501 set a new world record, beating the previous mark of 497 set in a New Zealand domestic game in 2016.