South Africa’s young batsman Luan-Dre Pretorius created history by scoring a explosive century against Namibia. In the tri-series match in Windhoek on Friday (September 4), Pretorius scored 101 runs in just 53 balls. On the basis of his explosive batting, South Africa defeated Namibia by 11 runs.
Luan-Dre Pretorius hit 5 fours and 8 sixes in his innings. His strike rate was 190.57. This was his first century in T20 International and with this innings he made a special record in his name. Pretorius became the youngest batsman to score a T20 International century for a full member team. He broke the record of Hazratullah Zazai of Afghanistan. Jazai achieved this feat against Ireland in 2019 at the age of 20 years and 337 days. Whereas Pretorius has scored a century at the age of 20 years and 161 days.
After this innings of Luan-Dre Pretorius, he has also started being compared with India’s young star Vaibhav Suryavanshi. An interesting connection between the two is that they play for Rajasthan Royals (RR) in the IPL (Indian Premier League). At the age of just 15, Vaibhav has already made many big records in his name. He is the youngest cricketer to play international cricket for India. He is also the youngest Indian to score a half-century in T20 International.
Vaibhav Suryavanshi has also reached close to his international century. Against Zimbabwe, he played a stormy inning of 81 runs in 49 balls. Although he could not complete the century. Now his eyes will be on that achievement. The upcoming Afghanistan T20 series and Asian Games can be two big opportunities for Vaibhav to prove himself.
South Africa won in a thrilling match
In the match, South Africa lost the toss and batted first and scored 228 runs in 20 overs. Luan-Dre Pretorius made a brilliant partnership of 156 runs with Connor Esterhuizen for the first wicket. Esterhuizen played a brilliant inning of 88 runs.
While chasing the target of 229 runs, Namibia also kept the match exciting. John Frylink scored 72 and Lauren Steenkamp scored 61 runs. Both of them gave a strong start to the team by adding 119 runs for the first wicket, but Namibia’s team could only reach 217 runs in 20 overs. The final of the tri-series will be played between South Africa and Zimbabwe on Sunday.
