Delhi: South Africa's young batsman Luan-Dre Pretorius has once again shown his batting prowess. Recently, in the T20 tri-series match played against Namibia in Windhoek, Pretorius played an important role in taking his team to the final by scoring a brilliant century. Luan-Dre Pretorius has come into limelight by playing an unbeaten inning of 188 runs in 79 balls in the CSA T20 Challenge.
Luan-Dre Pretorius scored 188 runs in 79 balls
20-year-old Luan-Dre Pretorius thrashed the Knights bowlers in the Pool B match of the tournament and hit fours and sixes on the field. Luan-Dre Pretorius scored unbeaten 188 runs in just 79 balls, which included 15 fours and 13 skyscraper sixes. This is the third century of Luan-Dre Pretorius in his T20 career.
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Luan-Dre Pretorius broke Gayle's record
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Lhuan-Dre Pretorius scores the highest-ever individual score in T20 cricket π€―π#SSCricket | #Pro20Cuppic.twitter.com/Thh8hQL5z9
β SuperSport π (@SuperSportTV) October 2, 2026
On the basis of this innings, Luan-Dre Pretorius has also broken the world record of Chris Gayle (175*). Luan-Dre Pretorius has now become the first player to score the highest innings in T20 cricket. On the strength of this innings of Luan-Dre Pretorius, his Titans team scored 267 runs losing 3 wickets.
Who is Luan-Dre Pretorius?
Luan-Dre Gilbert Pretorius was born on 27 March 2006 in Potchefstroom, South Africa. He is a left handed wicketkeeper-batsman. He made his debut in international cricket for South Africa in 2025.
Pretorius made his Test debut against Zimbabwe on 28 June 2025. In the same match, he played a brilliant inning of 153 runs and made a place among the select batsmen of South Africa who scored a century on Test debut.
He has also played for Rajasthan Royals in IPL. Apart from this, he has been a part of Paarl Royals in SA20, Hampshire in T20 Blast, San Francisco Unicorns in MLC and London Spirit in The Hundred. Luan-Dre is a part of the Pretorius Titans team in the CSA T20 Challenge.
Long list of records of Pretorius at young age
Pretorius's name is not limited to just T20 International records. Even in Test cricket, he has made a big record at a young age. By scoring 153 runs against Zimbabwe, he became only the seventh batsman to score a century on Test debut for South Africa.
His bat also played well in the 2024 Under-19 World Cup. He scored 287 runs in 6 matches for South Africa Under-19 and was the team's highest run-scorer.
Also read: 15 fours, 13 sixes, 188 runs… Luan-Dre Pretorius created havoc, Gayle's world record broken
So far in international cricket, Pretorius has scored 235 runs in 2 Tests, 142 runs in 3 ODIs and 427 runs in 17 T20 Internationals. His strike rate in T20 International is more than 158. At the age of 20, Luan-Dre Pretorius has played 91 matches. During this period, he has scored more than 2400 runs with the help of 3 centuries and 17 half-centuries.
FAQ
How did Luan-Dre Pretorius score 188?
He played an unbeaten inning of 188 runs on 79 balls, which included 15 fours and 13 sixes.
Whose record did Luan-Dre Pretorius break?
He left behind Chris Gayle's record of highest individual T20 score of 175 runs.