Pretorius finds lost runs to put South Africa in tri-series final

On Tuesday he mislaid six perfectly good runs in the middle of the Namibia Cricket Ground in Windhoek in a triseries game against Zimbabwe. They would have taken him to his first senior international century. Instead, perhaps frustrated by a slew of teammates who denied him the strike by getting out, he stepped way outside his off stump, exposing the other two, and was bowled around his legs for 94 off 51.

On Friday, against Namibia, Pretorius went back to reclaim those lost runs. They were exactly where he had left them. He reclaimed them and found one more to make 101 off 53, hitting more than two-thirds in fours and sixes. Seven of his eight sixes flew in the V, where he scored 60 runs off 19 balls. Most of the rest were smote square of the wicket.

And we do mean smote. The lore of left-handers is that they somehow look more elegant than right-handers at the crease; the ball apparently gliding off the bat with the grace of an ice-dancer across a rink.

Maybe that was true of David Gower and Brian Lara. Less so of Graemes Pollock and Smith. Among the butterflies and the blacksmiths of batting from the left-hand side of the crease, Pretorius is firmly one of the latter. That doesn’t make him any less watchable. Indeed there is something heartening about someone who looks and moves like a mere mortal bat exponentially better than a mere mortal ever could.

Young Lou, a name first used in public by Quinton de Kock — another lusty left-hander — is doing it for all of us, regardless of which way round we bat.

A humble right-hander, Connor Esterhuizen, was in even more fluent form than Pretorius on Friday. Esterhuizen hammered his 88 off 40, a strike rate of 220.00. Or 29.44 points faster than Pretorius. Together they kickstarted South Africa’s innings with a stand of 156 off 70 that ended in the 12th when Esterhuizen lashed out raggedly at Jan Balt. Like Pretorius did on Tuesday, Esterhuizen also lost something on Friday — his leg stump.

At a press conference Esterhuizen described Pretorius as “super laser-focused and always looking to get at the opposition” and himself as “sometimes a bit of a nervous wreck out there”.

Pretorius didn’t see things that way. “Connor made it a lot easier for me, and when he lost his wicket I could take charge as the leader in the middle and try to capitalise,” he told the host broadcaster.

“T20 is a game of fine margins and high-risk cricket shots.So when you’re in form you have to ride that wave as long as you can because it can change very quickly. I came with the same approach [as on Tuesday]: try to get to that 15-balls [faced] mark. I knew the rest would take care of itself.”

It almost didn’t. South Africa’s 228/4 — the first time in the tournament’s six matches that 200 was reached — seemed more than enough to hold the home side. But Namibians are accustomed to flowering in tough conditions in every avenue of their lives, and they took the game deep.

Louren Steenkamp and Jan Frylinck — still another bruising left-hander — shared an opening partnership of 119 off 65. But Namibia’s momentum began cooling in the 11th when Frylinck’s 36-ball 72 was ended with a pull off Andile Simelane to the square leg boundary, where Tony de Zorzi successfully hopped and skipped over the ropes and back to complete the catch.

Gerhard Erasmus took charge of the rest of the innings, finishing 30 not out off 26. But his only significant support came from Ruben Trumpelmann, who clipped 21 off 10. Namibia made 217/3, which meant South Africa won by 11 runs

“It was a bit closer than we wanted, but we’ve learnt to not take anything for granted in this game,” Bjorn Fortuin told the host broadcaster.“A win’s a win and we did some good things, but there’s a lot to work on going into that last game.”

Click here to read article