An Oddsworth Opinion
The number behind Lhuan-dre Pretorius’s 188
The story
Lhuan-dre Pretorius made the highest score in any T20 match with an unbeaten 188 for Titans against Knights in the CSA T20 Challenge, passing Chris Gayle’s 175. Titans won by 124 runs, and the innings has sharpened the question of where the South African opener stands among young batters.
Lhuan-dre Pretorius hit 188 not out from 79 balls for Titans against Knights, the highest score in any T20 match. How good was the batter behind it? In our records for men’s T20s and the Hundred, he had scored 2,032 runs before reaching the age he was that day, 20 years and 189 days. Meet Bhavsar was next at the same age with 1,390.
That lead gives the innings a history. Pretorius arrived in Bloemfontein with more runs at his age than anyone else in our records, then played an innings beyond anything T20 cricket had seen. His lead is substantial. Whether it makes him the best young T20 batter is a harder question.
How the record fell
Opening against Knights in the CSA T20 Challenge, South Africa’s domestic T20 competition, Pretorius reached 50 off 24 balls, 100 off 40 and 150 off 58. He hit 13 sixes. Titans made 267 for 3 and won by 124 runs, with Knights all out for 143. The speed of his start gave him time to carry on.
Chris Gayle’s 175 not out from 66 balls for Royal Challengers Bangalore against Pune Warriors in the 2013 IPL had been the highest score in any T20 match. Pretorius passed it while still at the crease. His previous high score in our records was 102 not out; Bloemfontein turned the sort of start he had made before into an innings of a different size.
An opener with several stages behind him
Pretorius is a left-handed opener who also keeps wicket. He scored 153 against Zimbabwe on his Test debut, becoming the youngest South African to make a Test hundred, at 19. He made 57 on his ODI debut against Pakistan. His T20 sides include Titans, Paarl Royals, Hampshire, Rajasthan Royals, San Francisco Unicorns and London Spirit.
Those teams help explain the size of his same-age tally. He had 74 innings in our records by the age he was on the day of the 188, while Bhavsar had 54. Dewald Brevis had scored 1,163 runs in 47 innings by that age. Pretorius built his run lead across more innings than either of them had played, and kept making enough of those chances to stay well ahead.
The young batter scoring faster
Vaibhav Suryavanshi complicates any claim that Pretorius is the best young T20 batter. Suryavanshi had scored 1,221 runs in 29 innings before Pretorius’s current age. His strike rate was 221.6 against 150.9 for the other batters in those matches. Pretorius’s strike rate was 155.9 against 134.9 for the other batters in his matches.
Pretorius has sustained his scoring over many more innings. Suryavanshi’s pace stands much further above the batters around him. Our ratings have Suryavanshi as the best men’s T20 batter, worth 12.7 runs a match more than an average player. Pretorius owns the bigger same-age tally; Suryavanshi makes the stronger case on scoring speed.
What makes the runs come
The 188 fits the way Pretorius has usually scored. In our records, boundaries came from 23.2% of the balls he faced, against 18.4% for an average batter in the same situations. He also faced fewer dot balls than par. The big shots have been part of a game that keeps moving between them.
Spin has offered his clearest advantage: his strike rate against it was 160.3, against 122.9 at par. He scored faster than par against pace too, though his average against pace was much closer to par. Longer stays against pace would give his scoring speed more chances to produce innings like Bloemfontein.
South Africa is seeing more of it
Pretorius’s T20I innings tell a story of change. In his first ten innings for South Africa, he scored 135 runs. Across his next seven, he made 292 runs at a strike rate of 165, while the other batters in those matches scored at 129.1. The recent innings have given South Africa far more from his starts.
The T20I tri-series in Namibia put that change in view before the 188. Pretorius scored 226 runs in four innings, finishing level with Dewald Brevis for the most in the series. His clubs had already seen him score quickly: across his first 24 club innings in T20s and the Hundred, his strike rate was 160.5 against 129.7 for the other batters in those matches. His South Africa returns are beginning to look more like his club batting.
The verdict after Bloemfontein
Our ratings have Pretorius 23rd among men’s T20 batters, worth 2.9 runs a match more than an average player at his usual place in the order. They have Brevis seventh, worth 5.1 runs a match more than an average player. Pretorius’s lead over Brevis in same-age runs has yet to become a lead in their ratings.
The record innings belongs to Pretorius alone, and his same-age run tally gives it a strong foundation. Brevis stands ahead in our ratings, while Suryavanshi has scored at a far sharper pace. Pretorius has made an outstanding case for the scale of his talent. Suryavanshi has the stronger claim to be the best young T20 batter today; longer innings against pace would give Pretorius his clearest route to changing that verdict.