When Brendon Louw walks on to one of South Africa’s most famous cricket grounds – Kingsmead in Durban – on Thursday he will achieve a significant milestone at the age of only 27.

In his 93rd match for South Western Districts against KwaZulu Natal Coastal in the CSA Provincial Three-Day competition he will reach his 100th first-class match.

The left-handed wicketkeeper-batsman, who made his first-class debut for SWD – also against KwaZulu-Natal in January 2010 in Oudtshoorn – almost 10 years ago will be keen to add a batting milestone to his three first-class centuries and 25 half-centuries. Louw, who was elevated to the SWD senior team in 2010 after representing the SA Schools XI in 2008 – as a grade 11 – also represented the Warriors in four 4-day matches (in 2011-12) and the North West Warriors in three matches during the past winter in the Cricket Ireland Interprovincial Championships.

Louw, who hails from Plettenberg Bay, matriculated at Outeniqua High in George where he also represented South Africa as a U17 hockey player. He has scored 4,110 first-class runs at an average of 28.15 with a highest score of 106 (vs Northerns in the 2016-17 season).

Not only is he the SWD record holder for the most first-class matches (92) and the most Twenty20 matches (37), but at 64 matches will most probably also soon overtake Pieter Stuurman (at 68 matches) with the most List A matches for the men from the Southern Cape. Louw also holds the SWD record for the most dismissals as a wicketkeeper – 294 (284 catches and 10 stumpings). On two occasions he has recorded eight dismissals in a match.

He regards Albie Morkel – when playing franchise cricket for the Warriors against the Titans – as the best bowler he has ever faced. When asked which coaches have influenced his career the most, he applauded Johan Weyers (his SWD U18 coach), who is currently a senior cricket manager at CSA, and Garry Hampson, who coached SWD for five seasons, as his cricketing mentors.

Photo: Gallo Images