Conrad wants impact, not consistency, from Brevis

Dewald Brevis and Oscar Wilde would seem to have something in common besides heads piled high with shaggy, floppy hair. Famously, the Irish writer argued that "consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative". In his 25 T20I innings, Brevis has reached 50 twice - once going on to score a century. For many, that's damning evidence of inconsistency. Especially for someone so talented.

No one could accuse Shukri Conrad of being unimaginative, and on Friday he went to bat for the counter argument to all that: "Consistency is really not something we look for in T20 cricket. We're watching for impact, and Dewald is that player. He can make an impact on the game singlehandedly.

"So can other players. But the bigger the occasion, the more the real Dewald Brevis stands out. We saw that in the SA20. He had a lean period, and then in running into the knockout stages he stood up."

Brevis scored 141 runs in his first eight innings for Pretoria Capitals, and never more than 36 not out in a match. Then he made 53 off 47 in Pretoria's last league game to help them beat Joburg Super Kings at the Wanderers. He and Sherfane Rutherford shared 106 after their team had crashed to 7/5 inside five overs. They recovered to a total of 143/6 and limited Joburg's reply to 122/8.

Four days later at Kingsmead, Brevis hammered an unbeaten 75 off 38 in qualifier one against Sunrisers Eastern Cape to help put his team in the final against the Eastern Capers at Newlands four days after that - when he scored 101 off 56, which wasn't enough to stop SEC from claiming their third title in four seasons.

But Brevis had made his point, Conrad said: "He thrives on the big occasion. He's an X-factor player, and we'll give him his head and allow him to do that."

Not many occasions come bigger than South Africa's first T20 World Cup Super Eight match against India at the Narendra Modi Stadium on Sunday. India have yet to lose in the tournament, but neither have South Africa. Win, and a semifinal place could be one more victory away. Lose, and the pressure will mount.

Brevis hasn't been central to his team's cause so far in the tournament. He holed out to mid-off for six against Canada, mistimed a drive to mid-off to go for 23 off 19 against Afghanistan, scored 21 off 17 against New Zealand before lurching down the pitch to Rachin Ravindra and skying a catch to long-on, and hoisted another catch to long-off against the UAE.

The difference in the latter match was that Brevis' 36 off 25 took South Africa to within seven runs of winning. He edged a four through deep third and hit three sixes - over midwicket, long-off and a no-looker also beyond midwicket.

It's true that the UAE attack harboured no-one of the class of India's Jasprit Bumrah and Varun Chakaravarthy. But it's just as true that Brevis has grown in stature and boldness as the tournament has gone on. Just like he did in the SA20, where he scored 88 more runs in his last three innings than he did in the first eight.

Of course, it's a reach to compare South African conditions and franchise bowlers to India's pitches and their team's excellent attack. Nobody says it's a perfect fit, but if something similar has happened once and could be happening again, who's to say it won't?

Before you answer that, consider another Wilde quote: "Whenever people agree with me I always feel I must be wrong." And another: "The man who sees both sides of a question is a man who sees absolutely nothing." And still another: "Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation."

Like Conrad, Brevis is his own person. An impactful chunk of runs against India on Sunday would go some way to reassuring South Africa's supporters that his inconsistency remains wildly imaginative.

Click here to read article