Lhuan-dre Pretorius, 20, hit 188 not out off 79 balls for the Titans against the Knights at Mangaung Oval, the highest individual score in recognised men's T20 cricket, breaking Chris Gayle's 175* from IPL 2013.
Lhuan-dre Pretorius has the highest individual score in recognised men's T20 cricket. The 20-year-old left-handed opener smashed 188 not out off 79 balls for the Titans against the Knights in the CSA T20 Challenge at Mangaung Oval, Bloemfontein, on Friday night, 2 October. He passed Chris Gayle's 175 not out for Royal Challengers Bengaluru against the now-defunct Pune Warriors in IPL 2013 (66 balls, 13 fours, 17 sixes), a record that stood for more than 13 years.
| The innings | |
|---|---|
| Score | 188 not out |
| Balls faced | 79 |
| Fours / sixes | 15 / 13 |
| Previous record | Chris Gayle, 175* (RCB v Pune Warriors, IPL 2013) |
| Previous CSA T20 Challenge best | Dewald Brevis, 162 |
| Result | Titans won by 124 runs |
How the record fell
Pretorius reached his fifty in 24 balls and his century 16 balls later, off 40. His 150 came off 58 deliveries. He was on course for the first double century in recognised T20 cricket but ran out of overs, finishing 12 runs short. The innings was his third T20 hundred. His 79 deliveries equal the record for most balls faced in a recognised T20 innings, a 79-ball mark previously set by Aaron Finch and Marcus Stoinis.
The match
Titans finished on 267 for 3, the second-highest total in the competition's history, behind their own 271 for 3 against the same opposition in 2022. They now hold the five highest team totals in the competition. Every Knights bowler went at more than 10 an over. The Knights were bowled out for 143 and lost by 124 runs, with Jacques Snyman making 32 off 12 and Gihan Cloete 39. Titans captain Donovan Ferreira took 3 for 16 with his off-breaks and also hit 29 off 11.
Who is Pretorius?
This was Pretorius' first game of the 2026-27 season. He arrived off scores of 94 and 101 against Zimbabwe and Namibia in a tri-series in September. He has played 22 internationals across formats, and his international debut came in Test cricket, where he scored 153 against Zimbabwe in June 2025. This was his 91st T20, a format in which he strikes at 150.44.
Draft your own record-breaker
Gayle's 175* was the benchmark for more than a decade, and it came in the IPL. In BuildXI you spin eleven real IPL squads from 2008 to 2025, take one player from each, and play a full season with the side you end up with. Get your openers right and you might build something close to unstoppable. The target is 14-0: fourteen league games, fourteen wins.