Pretorius' maiden T20 century powers San Francisco to top spot

In MLC 2026, MI New York fell to a red-hot Lhuan-dre Pretorius in the first game of Dallas' return leg, their second consecutive defeat after a hat trick of victories. After being placed in first, New York were hampered once more by a subpar batting performance in their second match in three days against San Francisco Unicorns. Additionally, Matt Short's skilful off-spin was responsible for the damage twice this week. However, Lhuan-dre Pretorius's first T20 century, which shattered the chase and established him as one of the best young cricketers in the world, was the post-interval highlight. Later, the captain of the opposition, Nicholas Pooran, would say, "Young kid showing us how to do it here." Pretorius launched an aggressive assault on Trent Boult, a 17-year-old outfielder, on a pitch Pooran called "really good for batting." Two fours and a six set the tone in the opening over. He returned to Boult about an hour later with three consecutive fours. By that point, all he had left to chase was his first three-figure mark in the format, which he achieved with a six and a four. The chase's second-best score was 20 because of the dominance. But Finn Allen would get a little more credit: Pretorius later said that the attack was possible because he borrowed his opening partner's bat. After the six-over mark, when the Unicorns had reached 52, Allen left immediately. Their only wicket of the day came from Romario Shepherd's cutter, and skipper Matt Short stayed put while Pretorius almost took all of the runs. Pretorius made short work of the chase, but it was Short's off-spin that short-circuited New York's top-order, crucially cutting short Ryan Rickelton's early blitz. His 21-ball 35 would remain their highest score, as their batting faltered against Short's accurate, grippy offerings. Having quickly seen that pace was easy to hit off, he bowled himself out by the ninth over, taking out the top three. With Pooran sticking at one end without any real fluency, Kieron Pollard would have hoped to bring some power into the game. On 16 off 12, a googly from 20-year-old leggie Anirudh Immanuel got him out, and he ran off ecstatically to celebrate his first T20 wicket. New York continued to slide downward after that. Sunny Patel was the only one who stood in the way. He pushed the ball around and got a crucial 32. New York would have barely reached 100 without him, losing their final four wickets for eight runs. Pretorius picked the pace well and used his wristy flourish to club spinners and quicks alike, especially in the middle of the wicket, so the few extra runs didn't matter much in the end. After his clean, straight six to Boult in the first over, his arguably best shot was a sweep from outside the off stump to Rushil Ugarkar, demonstrating his understanding of the pitch's pace and bounce. He got to 98 with that shot. Short received a hug, a kiss to his helmet, a beaming smile, and a century next to his name after the shot was repeated. The only minor hiccup occurred in the second over, when Shepherd yorked him and the umpire ruled that he had been ruled leg-before, only for a replay to save him. After that, only the bowlers from New York needed to be saved.