Scouting Cricket Weekly - Week 3
South African hitters and World Cup content
Scouting Cricket Weekly – Week 3 – 18/10/21
South African Hitters
It’s been well documented lately how South Africa have made some big errors when selecting their World T20 squad. In particular, the omission of Faf du Plessis, who then went on to be the second top run scorer in the IPL. As well as this, their squad is dominated by batters who are more anchor type of players, and their lack of firepower will be a detriment in the upcoming tournament. So, who can change this?
Introducing, Dewald Brevis. Born in Johannesburg, the 18-year-old has recently been playing for South Africa Under 19’s in the CSA Provincial T20 Cup and his power hitting stands out. Batting at number three, he has two knocks of 46(25) and 16(12), as well as a 54*(40) in the 50-over comp. His boundary percentage stands at an impressive 24.3% in those two T20 knocks so far, with five fours and four sixes. Three of the four sixes came against seam bowling. Admittedly a small sample size, the start is encouraging and it’s good to see a player with these types of numbers coming through. Looking at his technique, he noticeably really clears his front leg and opens up when smashing spin off the back foot through the offside. He also bowls some handy legbreaks too.
T20 World Cup
Okay so I’ll just quickly mention Scotland beating Bangladesh and then we’ll get into today’s action. Anyway, Curtis Campher. 4 wickets in 4 balls. Sensational. He adds some excellent variance to Ireland’s attack, mainly operating as a middle-overs seamer. Josh Little and Mark Adair are the ones who bowl in the powerplay and at the death, with Paul Stirling also used first up as a matchup bowler. In his man-of-the-match performance versus UAE earlier this month, seen a similar style of performance. He grabbed 3/19 from 4 overs, bowling overs 6,8,10 and 12. It was also fitting that he went on to hit the winning runs too.
Aside from the seamers who’s pace caused havoc for Sri Lanka, Maheesh Theekshana impressed with his off-breaks grabbing 3/25. He bowls a lot in the powerplay, including two overs against Namibia where he began with figures of 2/12. He uses subtle variations with his pace, ranging from around 57mph to 64mph, and his carrom ball is a great variation.
All Over Cricket Partnership
We have partnered with All Over Cricket for our coverage of the T20 World Cup. You can view our first article below, focusing on Scotland and Oman’s opening day victories. We’ll have some Under 24 content on our site after Wednesday’s matches.
