Dewald Brevis belted South Africa’s highest T20I score as the tourists stayed alive in the three-match series after a 53-run victory over Australia in Darwin on Tuesday.
Australia’s decision to bowl backfired as the Proteas powered to a massive 218-7 on the back of Brevis’ blistering 125* from 56 balls—his maiden century in international cricket.
Dewald Brevis’s record-breaking 125* sets up a series-level triumph.
The 22-year-old rescued South Africa from a shaky 57-3 and dominated a 126-run partnership with Tristan Stubbs (31).
“I’m extremely grateful, just thrilled to be out here on the winning side,” said Brevis, who surpassed Faf du Plessis’ 119 against the West Indies in 2015.
Playing just his ninth T20I, Brevis smashed eight sixes to leave Australia’s powerful batting line-up with an uphill task.
The early wickets of openers Travis Head (five) and Cameron Green (nine) made Australia’s daunting chase more difficult.
In-form Tim David, fresh off his match-winning 83 in their 17-run victory in the series opener at the same venue, held Australia’s hopes.
Promoted to No. 4, David started with a trio of boundaries and then bludgeoned several massive sixes, including one that landed on the roof.
But his 24-ball assault ended on 50 when he hit spearhead Kagiso Rabada straight to cover.
Australia’s chase lost momentum, as they were bowled out for 165 in the 18th over, with quicks Corbin Bosch and Kwena Maphaka taking three wickets each.
“Chasing that down was always going to be tough, and we needed a few partnerships, which we couldn’t do,” Australia captain Mitchell Marsh said.
The Proteas had struggled to fire in the opener, but captain Aiden Markram signalled his intent with a sublime boundary off the first ball of the inning, rattling Josh Hazlewood quickly.
But Markram (18) fell tamely to a fired-up Glenn Maxwell, who celebrated another wicket when he had Lhuan-dre Pretorius (10) stumped to leave South Africa in trouble.
Is Dewald Brevis the next AB de Villiers in T20 cricket?
Brevis, who was compared to the outstanding Proteas player AB de Villiers, changed the game by scoring more than his previous best T20I score of 41.
At 56, Brevis got a new life when replacement fielder Matthew Kuhnemann fumbled on the boundary off of Maxwell’s bowling, who was getting angrier and angrier.
Brevis made Australia pay, and in an instant, he was waving to the crowd after hitting a four off the 41st ball to reach 100.
Both Maxwell and Ben Dwarshuis took two wickets each while fielding for Australia, which performed much worse than usual. They failed to keep their nine-match T20 win streak going.
On Saturday, Cairns, Queensland, will host the game that will decide the series.