Cometh the hour...
Lhuan-dre Pretorius knows how to make an entrance
Lhuan-dre Pretorius marches to the beat of his own drum. He doesn't get why there is a dash in his name, so he drops it when he writes or types it. When he marks his guard, it's as if he is drawing a line in the sand, declaring the crease his domain. When he swings his bat, it's to defend it. Pretorius has a trigger. He taps the bat on the ground before getting into a good position as the bowler gets into his delivery stride. His tap sounds like a statement, a warning to the bowler to not make a mistake.
Few people born and raised in South Africa's landlocked provinces make good surfers. This is what makes Dale Steyn incredible. In the ocean, Pretorius is a kook and doesn't surf like Steyn, however, he thinks like a surfer on a line-up, patiently waiting for a wave to break. When it arrives, he rides the wave until it closes out.
Pretorius marked his guard, middle stump, tucked his bat under his arm and walked a few steps from the crease, unstrapping and strapping his gloves. When he got into position to face his first ball, the left-hander tapped the ground once and got into position as the bowler got into his delivery stride.
He got off the mark immediately with a single off the first delivery he faced. The left-hander was a little nervous. He was in Grade 9 and making his debut for the St Stithians first team. This was a big moment for him. Pretorius nudged and nurdled the ball over the next 14 deliveries he faced.
The pitch was tricky and the bowling attack was hitting good areas, so the opener bid his time. However, once he found an opening, he was unstoppable. Pretorius muscled a six over the ropes of the Dlamini Oval off the 16th delivery he faced. The maximum was the first of 18 boundaries in a knock that featured seven fours and 11 sixes. Pretorius unfurled his brilliant pull shot a few times and was imperious on the drive as he plundered an unbeaten 160 off 141 balls as he laid the platform for his side's victory.
For a long time, Lhuan-dre Pretorius ranked that ton as his favourite. When he scored it, it had felt as if the hours spent in the backyard of their Klerksdorp home competing against his young brother, Vihan, were in preparation for this moment. Pretorius and Vihan's lives revolved around their cricket net. They rushed to the net after school, barely paying attention to their homework. During weekends and holidays Pretorius honed his technique in the company of experienced heads at Old Edwardians Cricket Club.
Whether he was facing Vihan in their backyard net, schoolboy attacks or the premier league bowlers, Pretorius had the same approach. He addressed the ball as if he had a vendetta against it. If it was there to be hit, he wanted to hit it as hard as he could. If it was in his arc, he launched it out of the park. By attacking the ball, he learned not to be intimidated by bowlers.
That knock against St David's provided the first of the left-hander's many centuries for St Stithians. He scored them as fast as his life was about to move. A few months after the ton, he was signed by Paarl Royals as their rookie for the 2024 season. However, he missed that season because he was away on national duty, opening and keeping wicket for the SA u19 side. He top-scored for the Junior Proteas.
More often than not, when Pretorius took to the field with the bat, he did what was required of him, plundering vital runs for his side. As he did for St Stithians on debut, the left-hander announced himself to first-class cricket with a century. The Multiply Titans were on 87/4 when he arrived at the crease. Pretorius crunched 14 fours and three sixes on his way to 120 off 184. The ton set the Titans up for a comfortable victory.
‘Cometh the hour, cometh the man…’
1996 was Ole Gunnar Solskjær's first season at Manchester United. The Norwegian had barely spent three months with the Old Trafford side when Sir Alex Ferguson told the Manchester Evening News, ‘That boy is starting to make the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. I don’t want to get carried away, but it’s difficult to overestimate how good he could become one day.’
Lhuan-dre Pretorius invokes the same feeling in anyone who watches him bat. In his debut innings for Paarl Royals, the 18-year-old executed a swivel as he hooked Marco Jansen for a six. The shot made it two boundaries against the Proteas pacer in three deliveries. A few deliveries later, he smote a Richard Gleeson delivery in the space between point and cover. He was riding the wave.
Aiden Markram got one delivery to angle into him. Pretorius loves width. The Proteas white ball captain was denying him any. So, he created some for himself. He manufactured enough to allow him to crash the ball back over Markram's head onto the sightscreen. If sociologists are to be believed, attacking players are more creative than their conservative counterparts. Pretorius paddled the next delivery past backward square.
Pretorius began his innings with a single. He also registered his maiden half-century for the Royals with a single. However, in the over he reached the milestone, the left-hander converted a full delivery into a full toss as he creamed a Liam Dawson delivery for a four and uncorked a slog sweep for six.
The teenager dominated the Sunrisers Eastern Cape bowling attack on his way to 97 off 51. A match-winning score. He fell three runs shy of a maiden SA20 century. However, the Boland Park faithful applauded him off the pitch as if he had notched a 100 on debut. Vihan's role model, Ben Stokes, also made it feel like that with his post on Twitter.