South Africa’s newest batting prodigy, Lhuan-dre Pretorius, has taken to professional cricket like a duck to water, scoring centuries for fun in different formats.
Having built quite a reputation in white-ball cricket since his high-school days, some questioned whether he had the game to succeed in first-class cricket.
On his first-class debut at St. George’s Park last December, the youngster put to bed all the questions with a maiden century in his very first innings in the Cricket SA Four-Day Series competition.
He then followed up that knock with 103 against Western Province in his very next innings, proving that he belongs in Division One cricket.
Paarl Royals got off to an absolute flyer in the first over 👏 #BetwaySA20 #MICTvPR #WelcomeToIncredible pic.twitter.com/KAJBh1HowA
In his four innings in first-class cricket thus far, the youngster has failed only once to reach the half-century mark, making him one for the future for the Proteas Test team.
Though he’s been playing in Division One for a little over a year, Pretorius has drawn attention to himself with impressive performances, forcing fans to want to see him in the green and gold in the near future.
In an exclusive interview with Independent Media, Pretorius acknowledged that playing for South Africa is always in the back of his mind.
“I’ll be lying if I say it’s not in the back of my mind. It’s obviously in the back of my mind, and I think it’s normal for it to be,” he said.
“I just believe things will fall in place as they should, how they are planned, and I just try to stick to the same process.
“Whoever I play for, whoever I play with, I try to do as much as I can, as best as I can and score as many runs as possible.
“As a batter, runs are your currency. So, if you score as many runs as you can, no one can tell you no this and that. So, I just try to score as many runs as I can.
“I’m very patient because you don’t want to play, and then you’re not ready. You want to be mentally ready, physically ready and everything.
“I’m just patient, try as hard as I can off the field, and I believe that things will fall in place as they should.”
This week, Pretorius will play a vital role in the Titans top-order as they host Boland in the last round-robin fixtures of the Four-Day Series, starting on Thursday in Centurion.
Sitting second on the Four-Day Series table with every chance to book a home final, Pretorius and his teammates have a very important match against a Boland team that don’t go down without a fight, having been able to secure a draw last week against Western Province at Newlands.
We go head-to-head with Boland in our final home clash of the #4DaySeries 🏏
Catch all the action at @SuperSportPark from 3 - 6 April.#WhereLegendsRise pic.twitter.com/1PaNZrixCw
Pretorius emphasised that they are sticking to their plans, irrespective of the opponents.
“(The preparation has been) good. We’re sticking to our processes. I think it’s been working; we’ve just been unlucky a few times with the rain.
“It has to pay off. So, there’s no better time than tomorrow, and the rest of the game.”
Having lost at home in Centurion against Western Province two weeks ago, the Titans know they have room for improvement.
Pretorius told Independent Media that they did not dwell too much on that loss, despite it having had an impact on their position on the log.
“There’s room for improvement all the time. But you can’t really look back into the past games. I mean, you’re not going to win every cricket game,” said Pretorius.
“We got over it as quickly as possible and just took the learnings, because I think if you get stuck on the previous games, then your mind is always lost, and you focus on what hasn’t gone well instead of what’s been going well.”