'Very special' Pretorius given licence to drive

Lhuan-dre Pretorius has attributed his early success with the Paarl Royals to the coaching staff for giving him “full licence to play”.

The 18-year-old opening batsman has been the standout performer in the opening rounds of this SA20 season, striking two belligerent half-centuries at his Boland Park home ground.

He followed up his debut 97 with another 83 off 52 balls in the Cape derby against MI Cape Town to push his aggregate to 206 runs at an average of 68.66 and a strike-rate of 179.13.

The powerful left-hander sits comfortably atop the competition’s run-scorer’s list and is an early frontrunner for the SA20 Rising Star award.

He is also fast growing an affinity with the Royals faithful with the locals cheering on every boundary with gusto.

“I’m absolutely loving my time here with the Royals,” Pretorius said after the six-wicket victory over MI Cape Town. “The coaches are backing me to play my normal game, which is aggressive. I have full licence to play.”

Pretorius also feels he can now focus even more on his time with the Royals having received his positive matric results earlier this week.

“I was more nervous on the bus, because we got our results before we played MI [at Newlands],” he said. “I was more stressed about getting the results, than the actual game.”

Royals captain David Miller has certainly been impressed with how quickly Pretorius has adapted to senior cricket in his first SA20 season.

“He’s a phenomenal talent, really special to have him in the team,” Miller said. “There’s been a lot of young players that have come through the years, and I just think he’s something very special. I haven’t seen a lot of young players play the way that he does.

“The free flow, the back flow. He plays very late, he plays short balls really well, plays spin well. And yeah, I mean, he’s actually he’s really good thinker about the game.

“So it’s great to have him part of the setup and obviously contributing and putting in match winning performances for us. So very, very lucky to have him.”

The Royals’ next game against the Pretoria Capitals on Saturday will also be a familiar setting for Pretorius as he plays his domestic cricket there for the Titans.