By Ongama Gcwabe
Gqeberha — Dewald Brevis made a bright start to his first-class career with a fifty on debut against the West Indies in Benoni.
There were concerns of the inform Windies batting unit potentially dominating the warm up match when an Invitation XI was named by Cricket South Africa on Monday morning.
The 1st ever 50 for Dewald Brevis in red-ball cricket at the professional level#SAXIvWI pic.twitter.com/g5p4otR5ky
— Werner (@Werries_) February 22, 2023
The XI was picked based on the best available/free players instead of the best red-ball players in the country.
This is because the 4-Day Series is in full flow heading towards the end of the season and domestic teams kept their best players to maximize their chances of winning the competition and for some to avoid relegation.
Many Proteas players turned up for their Domestic sides including new Test Captain Temba Bavuma (Lions), Kagiso Rabada (Lions) and Marco Jansen (Warriors).
The Windies opening duo of Kraigg Brathwaite and Tagenarine Chanderpaul recently dominated in Zimbabwe with the highest opening stand for the West Indies.
The duo became the first opening pair to pass the three hundred run mark at the top of the order.
However South Africa’s Invitation XI restricted West Indies to under three hundred all out on Day one.
The bowling unit was led by Thando (1-15) Ntini and Corbin Bosch (2-17) who kept the Windies at bay and set the game up for their batters.
Jason Holder and Joshua da Silva scored half-centuries in the lower order and rescued the Windies to a decent 284.
In reply, the left-handed Wihan Lubbe (71 off 131) came to the party with a fifty and was followed by a fifty on debut by T20 star Dewald Brevis (50 off 64).
The invitation XI have kept the Windies on their toes despite the prior concern that the Windies would make it a one sided affair.
Day three of the warm up match continues tomorrow morning at the Willowmore Park in Benoni.
This is in preparation of the highly anticipated two-match Test series between South Africa and the West Indies.
The series will be played at Centurion and Johannesburg from February 28th.
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