Player Profile: Lincoln Casais (Jeppe)
Lincoln Casais loves numbers. He enjoys them so much that he faultlessly recited the four- and six-times tables by the time he turned four years old. A few years later, Casais scooped the award for the best mental Maths student as a Grade 1 learner. Since then, he has consistently recorded marks of 80 percent or higher in Mathematics.
Casais also loves cricket. That love began at a young age. When he was three years old, he cast aside football, rugby, and any other ball sports for the game.
His father, Marc, spent countless hours throwing the ball to him, and when he wasn’t there, Casais conjured up versions of the game that kept him busy for hours.
Nirvana was when he combined his two loves. From an early age, Casais counted his runs in multiples of four and six, depending on how far he hit the ball. Each day, he faced as many deliveries as possible, attempting to better the previous day’s total. It is not inconceivable that he reached 300 runs in a single session.
However, it was years before he got close to a triple century in a proper contest. That happened when he was 14.
Casais, who batted at number three for the Jeppe u14A team, walked in to bat in the second over against St Benedict’s College and had barely settled in when his side lost two more wickets. Instead of multiplying his runs in multiples of four and six, Casais dug his heels in and set about accumulating singles and hitting the odd four when the Bennies‘ bowlers delivered a bad ball.
His approach changed after he reached the 100-run mark. In an astonishing onslaught, 20 of the next 30 balls he faced were smashed for six. He finished with an unbeaten 260 from only 132 deliveries, the highest individual score by a Jeppe learner. It also propelled Jeppe to 485 runs in 50 overs, the highest score by a Jeppe team.
The field they were playing on was adjacent to a basketball court, where Jeppe’s 1st team was competing. As is typical of basketball matches at Jeppe, the stands were packed with spectators. At first, the crowd was focused on the basketball contest and occasionally cast an eye towards the cricket.
However, Casais’s fireworks captured their attention, and the mood grew more festive with each boundary that rocketed his score close to 200. In no time at all, the crowd had erupted, and they began chanting his name the moment he reached the 200-run mark. With each run that he added after reaching his double century, the noise level increased.
“It was an amazing and humbling experience for him. He has never been prouder to be a Jeppe boy,” Marc shared.
A few months later, Casais featured in a Lions u15 Regional Week semifinal match between the Lions u14 and Lions u15 teams. History repeated itself; Casais walked to the middle in the first over. Unlike the St Benedict’s bowling attack, the Lions u15 bowlers maintained disciplined lines and lengths and denied Casais room to express himself.
Demonstrating a strong mental approach, he knuckled down and compiled an unbeaten 89 to shepherd the u14 team to a score close to 150. The teenager then showcased his all-round skills to help his team make history. By successfully defending their total, they became the first u14 team to reach an u15 final.
The teenager’s ability to transform matches from any position hastened his inclusion in the Jeppe 1st XI. The 16-year-old, who idolised AB de Villiers in his early years and has since added Virat Kohli, Joe Root, and Steve Smith to the list of cricketers who inspire him, is in his second year as a 1st XI player. He was in Grade 9 when he made his Black Caps debut at the Fasken Time Cricket Festival.
In his first season in the Jeppe 1st XI, he scored 1537 runs and took 35 wickets.
This season, Casais has been a consistent presence in the middle order for Jeppe in T20 matches, boasting an average of 30 and a strike rate of over 130. He also averages an outstanding 55 in six 50-over cricket matches.
“We haven’t had a player like him in quite a while. He is mentally strong, confident, and has immense self-belief,” Casey Arnold, the Jeppe coach, said. “He backs that up with a strong work ethic; he hits more than a thousand balls a day. He has a deep desire and hunger to do well.”
However, Arnold believes Casais will go far because of his ability to process disappointment. He revealed that the 16-year-old takes failure in his stride, and he doesn’t allow bad outings to get him down. He views them as learning moments.
“I think that’s what makes him special. He doesn’t get down on himself if he has a barren run. He is mentally tough. He looks at challenges, and he tackles them head-on. His mindset will take him far.”
In March, when Jeppe contests the Switch Schools SA20 Volume Two Final Showdown, Casais will be one of their key players when they go up against top teams from around South Africa. The teenager, who trains faithfully every day, is sharpening his skills, aiming to deliver when it matters the most.
