T20 world record-breaker Lhuan-dre Pretorius hopes he can play a part in the Proteas winning an ICC World Cup in the future.
The 20-year-old wunderkind once again showed off his immense talent by blitzing 188 not out off 79 balls for the Titans against the Knights in Bloemfontein on Friday evening. Pretorius passed West Indies legend Chris “The Universe Boss” Gayle’s record, set 13 years ago at the IPL.
His innings included 15 fours and 13 sixes.
With the ICC ODI World Cup set to return to southern Africa for the first time in 24 years next year, Pretorius has a clear target.
“One of my biggest dreams is obviously to win a World Cup with South Africa,” he exclusively told IOL Sport.
“But yeah, things happen for a reason, and whenever my time is right, my time will come. So yeah, I’m just trying to do as well as I can forever. I play and prepare the best I can.”
Highest T2OI invidial scores.
Pretorius also stressed that he doesn’t play the game for individual accolades, and only wants to contribute to the success of whichever team he’s playing for.
“I didn’t realise — I wasn’t aware of the record. Not at all. So yeah, I just played, and fortunately in life it came off, and I ended up getting the record,” said the former Cornwall College prodigy.
“But yeah, I’ve said it plenty of times: I don’t play for records. I believe that they will come and go. Obviously, I’m very happy, and I’m not taking the record lightly or for granted, but you just try to give your best every time you step foot on the field.”
Pretorius burst onto the scene during the Betway SA20 Season 3, where he finished as the tournament’s leading run-scorer for the Paarl Royals in his maiden season.
It’s this insatiable appetite for scoring runs that drove the youngster to the world record.
Lhuan-dre Pretorius deals in maximums 🤌💥
His 188 runs in the #Pro20Cup is a new T20 record for an individual innings 🤯👏
“You don’t just want to give your wicket away because in T20 cricket you don’t always get the opportunity to score big runs and score hundreds. They come quite seldom. So you try to maximise every time you get, and when it’s your day, it’s your day in T20 cricket,” he said.
Pretorius plays in the IPL for Rajasthan Royals, who also boast one of the finest global young talents in Vaibhav Suryavanshi. The 15-year-old has already blasted a 35-ball century in the IPL, and Pretorius predicts the “Baby Boss” will surpass his mark in the near future.
“I’m pretty sure Vaibhav will come close to breaking that, or he’ll probably break it eventually,” he said.
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