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Lhuan-dre Pretorius has taken the single most celebrated batting record in Twenty20 cricket away from Chris Gayle. The 20-year-old South African struck an unbeaten 188 from 79 balls for the Titans against the Knights at the Mangaung Oval in Bloemfontein on Friday, erasing the 175 not out Gayle made for Royal Challengers Bangalore against Pune Warriors India in April 2013 — a mark that had stood for 13 years and had come to look untouchable.
Pretorius hit 15 fours and 13 sixes at a strike rate of 237.97, carried the Titans to 267 for 3 in the CSA T20 Challenge, and finished 12 runs shy of becoming the first man to score a T20 double century. The Knights, who had no answer to any of it, were bowled out for 143 in reply and lost by 124 runs.
“I feel really good,” Pretorius said afterwards, admitting he had not realised during the innings that the record had gone. “Playing for the badge is really cool, I love the Titans. They accepted me since my final year in school and I just love playing for them and putting on the sky blue clothing. It’s amazing, I don’t have words.”
Seventy-nine balls of controlled violence
What distinguished the innings was its shape. Pretorius did not slog-sweep his way to a freakish total off 45 balls; he batted the entire 20 overs and simply never slowed down. The landmarks tell the story of an innings that accelerated rather than exploded:
- 50 from 24 balls
- 100 from 40 balls
- 150 from 58 balls
- 188 not out from 79 balls — 15 fours, 13 sixes
He opened the batting and put on 112 for the first wicket with Sinethemba Qeshile before taking the game entirely into his own hands. The range was the point: pulls, hooks and power sweeps against the short ball, and the lofted drive over extra cover that has become his signature stroke since he first caught the eye in the SA20. Bowlers who went full were hit straight; bowlers who went short were hit behind square. There was no obvious plan available to the Knights, and by the closing overs they had stopped looking for one.
Titans captain Donovan Ferreira and Junior Dala then took three wickets each to complete a victory that keeps the franchise unbeaten and top of its pool. The Knights are still without a win.
The end of a 13-year benchmark
Gayle’s 175 was always more than a number. It was the high-water mark of the early IPL era, made off 66 balls with 13 fours and 17 sixes at a time when 200 was still a winning total. Plenty of batters have gone close since — Aaron Finch’s 172 for Australia against Zimbabwe in 2018 remains the highest score in a men’s T20 international — but nobody had passed it, and the assumption had hardened that nobody would. T20 batting has got faster, but faster batting also means shorter innings; the record required someone to be both ruthless and present for 20 overs.
That is precisely what Pretorius delivered. The new order at the top of the all-time list reads 188 not out, then 175 not out, then 172 — with a 20-year-old left-hander from Potchefstroom at the head of it. Gayle was 33 when he made his; Pretorius turned 20 in March.
Bloemfontein, again
There is a strange symmetry to where this happened. The previous highest score in the CSA T20 Challenge was Dewald Brevis’s 162 from 57 balls — also for the Titans, also against the Knights, in 2022-23. The Titans’ 271 for 3 against the same opponents in 2022 still stands as the highest total in the competition’s history, which means Friday’s 267 for 3 is only the second biggest the franchise has managed in this fixture. Few grounds in world cricket have hosted this much carnage from one team against one opponent.
It also underlines a point South African cricket has been making quietly for several seasons: the domestic T20 competition, long overshadowed by the SA20, remains an unusually productive finishing school for power hitters.
What it means from here
Pretorius arrived in Bloemfontein in form rather than in search of it. This was his first match of the 2026-27 season, following 94 against Zimbabwe and a maiden T20I century — 101 from 53 balls against Namibia in Windhoek in September, an innings that made him the youngest centurion in T20 international cricket from a full-member nation at 20 years and 161 days, taking that record from Hazratullah Zazai.
His rise has been close to vertical. He was South Africa’s leading run-scorer at the 2024 Under-19 World Cup with 287 runs, made 120 on first-class debut, and then scored 153 against Zimbabwe on Test debut in June 2025 to become the youngest South African to make a Test century. He has since been capped in all three formats, played for Paarl Royals in the SA20, joined Rajasthan Royals as an IPL replacement and signed for Hampshire in the T20 Blast.
The practical consequence is straightforward. A wicketkeeper-batter who can open, bat through, and score at better than two runs a ball is the most valuable commodity in the franchise market, and Pretorius has just produced the loudest possible advertisement ahead of the next SA20 and IPL cycles. For the Proteas, the more interesting question is one of selection discipline: a player this destructive in a domestic competition has to be protected from being asked to do it every week, in every format, at 20 years old.
The double century, meanwhile, is still out there — 12 runs away, and now visibly reachable. On Friday’s evidence, the man most likely to get it is the one who just moved the bar.
Analysis by Ahmad Ali, Sports Editor, SportsPortal.net
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Sources used to verify the facts: [TimesLIVE](https://www.timeslive.co.za/sport/cricket/2026-10-03-pretorius-sets-new-t20-world-record/), [vftt.co.za match report](https://vftt.co.za/post/pretorius-blasts-world-record-as-titans-maintain-winning-streak), [News Room Guyana](https://newsroom.gy/2026/10/02/pretorius-smashes-188-to-break-gayles-record-for-highest-t20-score/), [ESPNcricinfo scorecard](https://www.cricinfo.com/series/csa-t20-challenge-2026-27-1551607/knights-vs-titans-pool-b-1551846/full-scorecard), [Wisden on the Namibia century](https://www.wisden.com/series/namibia-tri-series-m-2026/cricket-news/south-africa-lhuan-dre-pretorius-breaks-full-member-record-with-maiden-t20i-ton-in-namibia-thriller), [Wikipedia: Lhuan-dre Pretorius](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lhuan-dre_Pretorius), [ESPN on Brevis’s 162](https://africa.espn.com/cricket/story/_/id/34918750/csa-t20-challenge-2022-23-titans-vs-knights-stats-dewald-brevis-shatters-t20-records-162-57-balls).
Two notes on editorial judgement: sources split on whether the Titans sit atop Pool A or Pool B, so the article says “its pool” rather than naming one. I also dropped a widely-repeated claim that the 79-ball innings equalled a record for most balls faced in a men’s T20 innings — it doesn’t hold up against the ball-faced data, so it isn’t in the copy. Article body is ~860 words.
Sports journalist and editor at SportsPortal.net. Covers cricket, football, Formula 1, tennis, and basketball with a focus on how global sports connect with Pakistani audiences. Follows the PSL, Pakistan national cricket team, Premier League, and major international tournaments. Has reported on sports for digital audiences since 2021.
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