Pretorius finds perspective after Klaasen chat

Lhuan-dre Pretorius turned to former Proteas star Heinrich Klaasen for advice after a couple of low scores in SA’s opening matches of the T20 International tri-series in Namibia, and the experienced Proteas cricketer gave him a simple message — focus on the next 15 balls.

The 20-year-old opener responded with a career-best 94 off 51 balls against Zimbabwe in Windhoek on Tuesday, helping South Africa to a 45-run victory.

Pretorius said getting to three figures was never the priority, even though the milestone was within reach

“I just felt like speaking to him,” Pretorius said of Klaasen, whom he plays alongside domestically.

“He’s obviously 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.”

After struggling for runs in the first two matches, Pretorius felt there was no better person to speak to than Klaasen.

The pair play for the Titans and Pretorius said Klaasen had always made it clear that he could approach him for advice.

“He just told me to give myself the best chance I can and get to 15 balls and put those small targets in, and that’s what I focused on,” he said.

Pretorius was able to put that advice into practice, taking the pressure off himself and concentrating on each phase of his innings.

The result was his most significant contribution in a South African shirt to date.

Despite falling short of his century, Pretorius was not disappointed.

“T20 hundreds are very rare, and international T20 hundreds are even more rare. But I wasn’t too fussed about it,” he said.

“I believe that milestones will come and go. It’s a team sport. I wasn’t too worried about my milestone.”

Pretorius admitted that he would have reached three figures had South Africa pushed through to the 200-run mark, but Zimbabwe’s bowlers made scoring increasingly difficult towards the end of the innings.

The visitors eventually finished on 185/4, a total Pretorius felt was around 15 runs short of what they could have achieved.

It mattered little in the end as South Africa made up for those runs with the ball and in the field.

For Pretorius, the performance also reinforced the value of having experienced players such as Klaasen around a young Proteas group.

Although the two batters have different roles, Pretorius believes their aggressive approach to T20 cricket gives them plenty of common ground.

“He really helped me in terms of my mindset going into today,” Pretorius said.

With South Africa’s final against Namibia now in sight, Pretorius believes there is still plenty to come from a young batting group in which Dewald Brevis has already made his mark, and others are still waiting for their opportunity.

“We are a really young, inexperienced, talented group, so anyone on the day can put their hand up and win the game for the team,” he said.