A little help from a legend: Pretorius credits Klaasen after career-best innings
· Citizen
Having regained his best form, Lhuan-dré Pretorius credited former Proteas star Heinrich Klaasen for helping him turn things around, after the 20-year-old opener played a key role in South Africa’s victory over Zimbabwe in the T20 International tri-series in Windhoek on Tuesday.
Pretorius hit a T20 International career best 94 runs off 51 balls, laying a solid foundation for the Proteas as they secured a 43-run win against their lower-ranked neighbours.
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After struggling to hit his straps in his last couple of games for London Spirit in the recently concluded The Hundred competition in the UK, Pretorius had been dismissed for nine runs in the Proteas’ opening match of the ongoing T20 tri-series against Namibia last week and was removed 22 in their second fixture against Zimbabwe.
Ahead of their third game on Tuesday, Pretorius had called Klaasen for some advice.
“Coming off a couple of low scores in The Hundred, and the first few games here, I just felt like I had to speak to him. Obviously he’s played a lot of T20 cricket around the world and he’s experienced most things, all the ups and all the downs, the lowest lows and the highest highs,” Pretorius said.
“I talk to him quite a lot because we play for the same franchise back home domestically (the Titans), and he always tells me I can go to him and ask him for advice and stuff, and I feel like there’s no-one better to ask for advice than Klaasie.
“He helped me and luckily it paid off. He just told me to give myself the best chance I can, get to 15 balls and put those small targets in, and that’s all I was focused on.”
Unfazed by missing ton
Though he fell six runs short of his maiden T20 International century against Zimbabwe, Pretorius said he was relatively unfazed, as he had been more concerned about making a valuable contribution to the team effort.
“In T20 hundreds are very rare, and international T20 hundreds are even more rare, so I wasn’t too fussed about it,” he said.
“I believe that milestones will come and go and it’s a team sport. If I was too worried about milestones I should rather play tennis or golf.”
South Africa will face Namibia on Friday in their last round robin match of the T20 tri-series in Windhoek, ahead of the final to be held on Sunday.