Pretorius' third
It might be his best century to date
‘Once You See Him, There Will Be No Doubt.’ Gideon Haigh in Stroke of Genius.
It was late afternoon. Lhuan-dre Pretorius trampled the grass in the space between the stumps and the halfway point to where the square-leg umpire stood. He had been at the crease for almost five hours. He had taken that stroll so much that the footpath he created left him level with Dominick Hendricks, the shortest guy on the field.
It was part of his routine. Pretorius left his position after facing a few deliveries to gather his thoughts and centre himself. The stroll was unhurried. After he made his way back, Pretorius planted his left foot where he had marked his guard, twirled his bat a couple of times and readied himself for the next delivery.
Tshepo Moreki purposefully ran in and targeted Pretorius’ pads with a straight delivery. The 19-year-old worked the ball to the vacant third man and region. He was back in his crease when the boundary sweeper hurled the ball to the wicketkeeper. The two runs took him to 99.
The fielder returned to his post. Moreki bowled the same line. Pretorius worked the ball into the area and crossed for another two runs to wipe out the Titans’ deficit and reach his 100. Pretorius briefly lifted his bat to acknowledge his celebrating teammates and family in the stands.
The 19-year-old’s century was the difference between the Titans losing or being crowned joint winners of the CSA 4-Day Cup.
A few people took to social media to type: “First of many,” after Lhuan-dre Pretorius made his maiden first-class century in December 2024. The more conservative lot cautioned them not to get carried away and those who hadn’t seen much of his work raised sceptical eyebrows.
Three matches later, Pretorius has proven the first type to be right. The 19-year-old returned to red-ball cricket after a successful SA20 campaign with a wonderful 103 against Western Province. He missed out on a century in the next match but reached another first with a maiden first-class 50 against the North West Dragons.
It is an understatement to say that Pretorius has had a wildly successful debut season. The cherry on top was his title-winning 100 in the final, against the Lions. What was clear on Monday, was that though he didn’t register a new career-best first-class score, Pretorius’ ton was something exceptional.
“Before he had batted for half an hour it was obvious that a new star of unsurpassed brilliance and charm had joined the cluster of the Southern Cross,” H. S. Altham wrote, describing Victor Trumper, in A History of Cricket. He might as well have been talking about Lhuan-dre Pretorius.
The left-hander’s match-saving marathon lasted for five hours and 22 minutes - a remarkable feat for a teenager just out of school.
Unlike previous generations that were raised on declaration cricket, Pretorius, born in 2006, is a child of the T20 era. Pretorius grew up on a steady diet of white ball cricket: the LPL, Johnny Waite, the North and South Trophy, and a few 50-over matches. St David's Marist Inanda time cricket tournament and the single match Michaelmas offered each year summed up his red-ball experience in schoolboy cricket.
However, batting time has never been an issue for Pretorius. A couple of months ago I was researching Richard Seletswane. He possesses generous dollops of talent and was Pretorius’ opening partner at St Stithians. So, I reached out to Malibongwe Maketa, the CSA high-performance lead and SA u19 coach.
Maketa shared with me that of all the youngsters in the Lions region in their cohort, Pretorius and Seletswane had the highest work rate. He used an anecdote to make his point. Pretorius and Richard Seletswane shared the same coach, Bongani Ntini. The St John's College and Gauteng Lions coach reported that the duo booked the most training sessions with him compared to other u19 players in his region.
Ntini had a drill where the youngsters ran the length of a pitch and back regardless of the shot they played. Pretorius and Seletswane were tireless. They kept up the session until the coach stopped them.
Pretorius didn’t just put his endurance on display in the final. He also showed his cricket IQ. He rode the ebbs and flows of the innings with a maturity that belied his age. The Titans lost Keegan Petersen 59.1 overs into the third innings. He was on 42 off 76 balls and lunch was about 30 minutes away.
Instead of maintaining his tempo and rushing to a half-century, Pretorius adopted a more circumspect approach, he needed to ensure that the Titans didn’t lose a second wicket before the break. He scored 12 runs off the next 30 balls. His partner, Rivaldo Moonsamy, stonewalled the Lions and took a single run off 37 deliveries. The pair saw the Titans to lunch without further damage, 95 runs in arrears.
Pretorius swung the pendulum back in the Titans’ favour. The Lions tried to assert themselves through their premier spinner, Bjorn Fortuin, but Pretorius didn’t allow the left-arm tweaker to settle. He used his feet to upset Fortuin’s length and brought out the sweep shot every now and then.
The left-hander gave the Lions a chance to dismiss him when he worked the ball straight to Joshua Richards at short square leg when he was on 26. Potgieter grassed that catch. Pretorius took his stroll towards the square-leg umpire, composed himself and played a faultless innings from then on.
He showed nerves for the first time 58 deliveries after lunch. He had scored 38 runs and was eight runs away from a third first-class century. He danced down the pitch, ala T20, and slapped a Bjorn Fortuin delivery straight to the fielder at midwicket. He went on one knee and tried to slap the next delivery to the ropes and missed it completely.
Pretorius was successful the third time around when he flayed the ball to the boundary for four. He attempted the same stroke of the fourth delivery and was beaten by Fortuin. As if sensing that his sudden impatience could cost him a milestone, Pretorius took a single and got off strike.
The left-hander walked down the crease to meet Tshepo Moreki’s delivery, he struck it straight back to the bowler. He bunted the next one to square leg. The third delivery of the over went that way too. Things could have gone askew but they did not.
Pretorius took a stroll towards the square leg umpire and gathered himself. He had better control of the next two deliveries he faced, they took him to his ton. Pretorius was dismissed 33 balls later. He hadn’t registered a new career-best, he fell six runs short. However, he had seen his side to safety. The left-hander’s 114 from 209 won the Titans half of the four-day trophy.