Lhuan-dre Pretorius is fast developing into a household name after the teenager powered the Paarl Royals to a six-wicket victory over MI Cape Town in the SA20 Cape derby at Boland Park on Wednesday night.
Pretorius followed up his 97 on debut with another belligerent 83 off 52 balls (8x4, 3x6).
The 18-year-old benefited from an early let-off when Colin Ingram dropped a simple chance in the covers, when Pretorius had yet to open his account, while Kagiso Rabada also failed to hold on to a difficult caught-and-bowled chance.
But as the legendary South African golfer Gary Player always said, “the more I practice, the luckier I get”, and Pretorius certainly took full advantage of his good fortune.
He brought up a 34-ball half-century before exploding in George Linde’s final over.
Pretorius showed good game awareness as he realised the Royals required a break-out over to pull the run-rate that had reached 10 per over at that stage.
The powerful left-hander monstered two consecutive sixes and a boundary that immediately reduced the rate.
Ultimately, it took a brilliant direct hit from Rashid Khan in the outfield to bring Pretorius’ innings to a close.
There was another smashing run out from Connor Esterhuizen to send Dinesh Karthik on his way, but they were all consolations as skipper David Miller (24 not out) took his team comfortably over the line.
Earlier, Rassie van der Dussen anchored the MI Cape Town innings with 91 not out off 61 balls (5x4, 5x6).
Van der Dussen showed off all his experience on a sluggish Boland Park surface. He was particularly harsh on Lions teammate Kwena Maphaka.
The teenager would hopefully have taken heed of the lessons dished out by Van der Dussen.
Maphaka conceded 35 runs on the night, with 33 flowing off Van der Dussen’s blade, which included three sixes and two boundaries.
Van der Dussen shared a 31-run opening partnership with new partner Azmatullah Omarzai, before another 59-run stand with Reeza Hendricks.
The latter, though, seems to be in the pocket of Royals mystery spinner Mujeeb Ur Rahman.
The Afghanistan star has now disturbed Hendricks’ timber in consecutive matches, with the Proteas batter playing down the wrong line on both occasions.
From thereon, it was a lone salvo from Van der Dussen, with Joe Root’s part-time spin proving efficient on the slow surface as he finished with miserly figures of 1/24 from three overs. | Independent Media Sport
Brief Scores
MI Cape Town 158/4 (Rassie van der Dussen 91 not out, Reeza Hendricks 30; Mujeeb Ur Rahman 2/27)
Paarl Royals 159/4 (Lhuan-dre Pretorius 83, David Miller 24 not out; Rashid Khan 1/22)
Paarl Royals won by six wickets