South African batter Lhuan-dre Pretorius broke one of Twenty20 cricket's most enduring records on Friday, blasting an unbeaten 188 to eclipse Chris Gayle's mark for the highest individual score in a men's T20 match.
Pretorius, 20, reached his century off just 40 balls and raced to 150 in 58 deliveries before finishing on 188 not out from 79 balls, with 13 sixes and 15 fours, as his side, the Titans, posted 267-3 in their 20 overs against the Knights in the domestic T20 competition at Mangaung Oval in Bloemfontein. His innings carried a strike rate of 237.97.
The knock surpassed the 175 not out that Gayle, the Jamaican former West Indies opener, hit for Royal Challengers Bangalore against the Pune Warriors in the 2013 Indian Premier League — a score that had stood as the format's benchmark for more than a decade and was long regarded among cricket statisticians as one of the sport's most unbreakable marks.
A lopsided finish, and a fast-rising talent
Knights' bowlers had no answer during the Titans' innings; Boast was the only one to take a wicket, finishing with figures of 1-46 from his four overs. Chasing 268 to win, Knights never recovered, with Cloete's 39 off 25 balls the top score before Ferreira took 3-16 to help bowl the chasing side out for 143 in 17.2 overs, completing a 124-run win for the Titans.
The record arrives in a breakout year for Pretorius, who has already played 17 Twenty20 internationals, three one-day internationals and two Tests for South Africa despite being only 20. He hit a maiden international T20 century against Namibia last month and has drawn comparisons to Gayle himself for his power-hitting, though Friday's innings came in a domestic fixture rather than an international one, meaning it stands as the record for a men's T20 match generally rather than a T20 international specifically.
Gayle's own exploits, including a 175 that is still replayed in Indian Premier League highlight reels, made him the benchmark against which power-hitters have been measured since the format's explosive growth in the 2010s. Pretorius's innings is likely to intensify calls for his promotion up South Africa's limited-overs batting order, with national selectors already tracking his rapid rise through the domestic and age-group ranks over the past two seasons.
