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Following a hard-hitting 94 in his side's win over Zimbabwe in the tri-nation series also featuring Namibia, South African batter Lhuan-dre Pretorius said that he spoke to former Proteas batter Heinrich Klaasen after a string of low scores, pointing to his massive T20 experience as a global-trotting league recruit.
After his maiden T20 century for San Francisco Unicorns against MI New York in the Major League Cricket (MLC), Pretorius went six innings without a fifty to his name, while he scored two half-centuries for London Spirit in The Hundred, he ended the campaign with scores of 16 and 6. He started the tri-nation series in Namibia with scores of 9 and 22, before unleashing his best against Zimbabwe at Windhoek, smashing 94 in 51 balls, with 12 fours and three sixes as Proteas reached 185/7 and restricted Zimbabwe to 142 all out. In his previous nine innings before this knock, he had made just 209 runs at an average of 23.22, with two fifties. "I spoke to Heinrich Klaasen," Pretorius said in Windhoek as quoted by Cricinfo. "Coming off a couple of low scores in The Hundred and the first two games here, I just feel like I had to speak to him. He has obviously played a lot of T20 cricket around the world, and he has experienced most things - all the ups and all the downs, lows and highs. And I felt like he is a good person to speak to," he added. He acknowledged the difference in his and Klaasen's roles, with Lhuan being a top-order batter and Klaasen in the middle, but Lhuan said that the talk was more about mindset. "I feel like we can speak, and we have some similarities around it. And he really helped me in terms of my mindset going into today," he added. Despite being set, Pretorius could only get to face 12 balls between overs 16-19 as wickets tumbled from the other end and the possibility of a century looked distant with each fall. Amid this pressure, he became the sixth man down and will have to wait till he gets to raise his bat for a maiden T20I ton in Proteas colours. But Pretorius could not care less, saying that it is a team sport and he would rather play tennis or golf in order to chase milestones. "I was not too fussed about it. I believe that milestones will come and go," he said. "It is a team sport. If I were worried about my milestone, I would rather play tennis or golf. So I was not too upset about it," he added. In 16 T20Is, Lhuan-dre has made 326 runs in 16 innings at an average of 20.37 and a strike rate of 141.73, with two fifties. Coming to the match, SA elected to bat first, with Pretorius (94 in 51 balls, with 12 fours and three sixes) and Dewald Brevis (41 in 27 balls, with two fours and three sixes) taking SA to a solid total, despite Wessly Madhevere (3/20), Brad Evans (2/33) and Newman Nyamhuri (1/30) causing them to collapse from 154/1 to 185/7 in 20 overs. In the defence of 186 runs, skipper Bjorn Fortuin (4/24) and Duan Jansen (3/21) struck regularly, restricting Zimbabwe to 142 all out, with skipper Sikandar Raza (45 in 33 balls, with five fours and two sixes) and Nyamhuru (27 in 25 balls with a four and a six) accounting for over half the runs. South Africa is at the table top with two wins and a loss. Namibia will play Zimbabwe and SA in two matches to determine the finalists, with both other teams having two points each. Zimbabwe has won one and lost two, while Namibia has won one and lost just one. (ANI)
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