Mumbai Indians Cape Town said that things had changed from the first two seasons of the SA20, but now we know by how much. After finishing at the bottom of the points table in seasons one and two, MICT are season three’s champions, and the first team other than beaten opposition Sunrisers Eastern Cape to win the title.
And so to Brevis, whose potential from the 2022 Under-19 World Cup, where he finished as the leading run-scorer, is being fulfilled. He came in after 11 overs – having being held back so that MICT could stick to their left-hand, right-hand obsession – with the innings needing some impetus. MICT were 93 for 4 and the most consistent batters had all been dismissed. Richard Gleeson bowled the 12th over and conceded only four runs and then the first four balls of Liam Dawson’s final over brought only four singles. Something had to happen.
So off the next ball, Brevis cleared his front foot, got under the length and slammed Dawson over long-on for six. The ball after that, he made room and hit him over long-off for six more. And the next ball he faced, from Andile Simelane, he smoked over long-on again for a third successive six. Just like that, MICT were 121 for 5 in the 14th over and 180 was in their sights.
All of that is the cricket speaking but, on the boundary and beyond it, we’ve also seen a different side to Brevis. It’s in this tournament that he showed off his incredible catching skills, parrying the ball back into the field of play to dismiss Faf du Plessis in a league game at the Wanderers, and having safe hands everywhere else around the country. Also in this tournament, he seems to have shed the “Baby AB” tag that he so revelled in as a younger man and found his own voice, speaking with clarity and assurance whenever he has been interviewed. Brevis might remind himself, and many of us, of his hero AB de Villiers but he is learning to be his own man, which is one of the things that those close to him felt was necessary for him to make the step up.
MICT put an emphasis on the scaffolding of their structure, surrounding Rashid with experienced local players who could help the only foreign captain in the tournament navigate South African challenges, and on their squad reserves. They were able to empty their bench in their last league game, for example, because they’d already qualified for the final and in so doing gave someone like Esterhuizen an experience he could draw on when he was asked to come into the XI for the final. That’s one instance of MICT working on longer-term plans, but there have been others.
In an interview with ESPNcricinfo, Rickelton spoke about an MI-specific camp that was held in the UK in 2023, where everyone involved in the franchise was present. “I had a full MI group of coaches that sat me down and said, ‘this is how we want you to play, and this is the plan. I never really had a plan on T20 cricket until that camp,” he said. “It definitely laid the platform for where I sit right now.”
The end result is plain. Whereas from season one onwards, we all knew how well-resourced MICT would be, as they signed some of the biggest names in the game from Jofra Archer and Kieron Pollard to Rashid and Ben Stokes, now we know what those less-heralded components can do too.
