CHENNAI: In a season where much has seemed offcolour for Chennai Super Kings , powerhitter Dewald Brevis seems a bright spot for the fivetime IPL champions. The 22-year-old South African, known as ‘ Baby AB ’ (for his AB de Villiers-esque strokeplay), went unsold at the IPL mega auction following a relatively quiet stint with Mumbai Indians. But fate had other plans.
Drafted mid-season as a replacement for Gurjapneet Singh, Brevis was handed a crucial role that CSK had struggled to fill, that of an aggressive middle-order enforcer who can tilt the tempo in the middle and back end of an innings. “I watched the first half of the IPL and it was torturing. I was eager just to get here,” Brevis had said.
Brevis wasted no time making an impact. Slotted into a misfiring batting unit, Brevis settled seamlessly into the middle order (at No. 5 & No. 6). In the four matches he has played, the explosive batter has accumulated 126 runs, with three scores above 30, and a healthy strike rate of 163.64 — his best in the IPL so far.
On Wednesday against KKR, Brevis showed spark and spunk to illustrate just how quickly he can turn a game. His base-ball bat arcs and down-theground brutality brought a kind of raw, fearless power that CSK’s batting had sorely lacked earlier this season. He played a superlative knock (52, 25b; 4x6, 4x4) at a strike rate of 208.00 and unleashed a relentless assault on KKR seamer Vaibhav Arora, plundering him for 30 runs in an over: 6, 4, 4, 6, 6, 4.
Former Australia cricketer Tom Moody, who has coached various IPL sides, said, “This could be one of CSK’s best signings of the decade. Brevis is an exceptionally talented player and he’s just starting to realise that talent.”
That single over shifted the momentum in CSK’s favour, propelling them to victory. “That over was basically very ‘in the moment’. I took it ball by ball. The last ball, when I just slammed it towards the covers, that was so satisfying. It was just watching the ball and reacting to it. This is what IPL is all about, the moment. When there’s an open door, slam it down," Brevis said.
Drafted mid-season as a replacement for Gurjapneet Singh, Brevis was handed a crucial role that CSK had struggled to fill, that of an aggressive middle-order enforcer who can tilt the tempo in the middle and back end of an innings. “I watched the first half of the IPL and it was torturing. I was eager just to get here,” Brevis had said.
Brevis wasted no time making an impact. Slotted into a misfiring batting unit, Brevis settled seamlessly into the middle order (at No. 5 & No. 6). In the four matches he has played, the explosive batter has accumulated 126 runs, with three scores above 30, and a healthy strike rate of 163.64 — his best in the IPL so far.
On Wednesday against KKR, Brevis showed spark and spunk to illustrate just how quickly he can turn a game. His base-ball bat arcs and down-theground brutality brought a kind of raw, fearless power that CSK’s batting had sorely lacked earlier this season. He played a superlative knock (52, 25b; 4x6, 4x4) at a strike rate of 208.00 and unleashed a relentless assault on KKR seamer Vaibhav Arora, plundering him for 30 runs in an over: 6, 4, 4, 6, 6, 4.
Former Australia cricketer Tom Moody, who has coached various IPL sides, said, “This could be one of CSK’s best signings of the decade. Brevis is an exceptionally talented player and he’s just starting to realise that talent.”
That single over shifted the momentum in CSK’s favour, propelling them to victory. “That over was basically very ‘in the moment’. I took it ball by ball. The last ball, when I just slammed it towards the covers, that was so satisfying. It was just watching the ball and reacting to it. This is what IPL is all about, the moment. When there’s an open door, slam it down," Brevis said.
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