Did Lhuan-dré Pretorius’ teammates cost him his first T20I century in a Namibia triseries game against Zimbabwe in Windhoek on Tuesday? There’s a decent case to be made that they did.

Pretorius was in frightening form. He hit 94 off 51 with a dozen fours and three sixes at a strike rate of 184.31 — the highest in his 16 T20I innings. He played all his usual strokes and made up a couple of others on the fly.

Like flinging an almost horizontal bat well away from his body to punish a wide yorker gone wrong. You need to be seeing the ball particularly well, and have utmost trust in your timing, to do that.

Even so, one of his innovations led to Pretorius’ downfall. He stepped so far across his stumps to a slower yorker from Brad Evans that ended the penultimate over of the innings that leg and middle stumps stuck out like speedbumps on a highway. Evans was on target and leg stump was cleared for take-off.

Pretorius had a hand in his own dismissal. He did not, after all, need to go for a walk outside his off stump facing the opposition’s quickest bowler. But, by then, he might have been all out of good humour and patience. And for sound reasons.

Consider that he reached 50 off 24 balls, needed seven more to get into the 60s, a mere three to go from there to the 70s and only another five to enter the 80s. Consider also that, of the last 30 balls, he was able to face just 12.

Pretorius’ fire was denied fuel when it needed it most by batting partners who, in trying to lay into the Zimbabweans’ largely toothless attack, kept being caught in the deep while he looked on helplessly from the wrong end of the pitch.

When Dewald Brevis shoved the second ball of the 15th down long-off’s throat, Pretorius was 77 not out off 40. Five balls later Newman Nyamhuri had Connor Esterhuizen caught off the leading edge at deep square leg with what would have been a wide. Seven deliveries after that Rubin Hermann hoisted Wessly Madhevere into long-off’s hands. Madhevere was in business again four balls later, when Eathan Bosch drove a catch to long-off.

Those four wickets clattered for 20 runs in 17 deliveries. Pretorius faced 10 of them and hit two fours among the 12 runs he scored while the slew of poor decision-making was going on 22 yards away.

Small wonder he decided that, if he was going to get to a hundred, and maybe even drag a team who had reached 150 in 15.1 overs but were squandering the platform they had earned to make it to 200, he would have to take risks he might avoid in other circumstances. Like giving Evans two stumps to aim at while he went fishing down the wrong line.

Asked by the host broadcaster about missing out on a ton, Pretorius said, “Ag, it’s fine. I was a bit gutted because we said after 14 overs we wanted to get to 200. I knew that if we got to 200 I would get to the milestone.”

At the press conference that followed a reporter wanted to know if Pretorius felt let down by his batting partners.

“I wouldn’t say so,” he said. “I was the in-batter and that’s how T20 cricket works. As a top five, one batter can put his hand up and win the game. Brevi did it in the first two [when he scored 75 and 75 not out against Namibia and Zimbabwe on Friday and Saturday]. Today was my day. Hopefully the next game it’s someone else’s day.

“Then you have to maximise because T20 cricket is a game of high risk and small margins of error. So you’re not always going to get those high scores.”

Really? He was a scant six runs away …

“T20 hundreds are very rare. International T20 hundreds are even more rare. But I wasn’t too fussed about it. I believe milestones will come and go. It’s a team sport; if I was worried about my milestones I should rather play tennis or golf.”

That said, Pretorius was aggrieved enough at his fate after being dismissed to swipe his bat in anger. Happily for him and his match fee he didn’t hit what of his wicket was left standing.

Is it too much to wonder if he was still miffed by the fourth over of Zimbabwe’s reply? Stationed at short third, he turned awkwardly and stabbed his right hand at where he thought the ball might be after Brian Bennett pulled Bjorn Fortuin hard. Pretorius guessed right and the ball lodged in his paw. Or, as he put it, “I was in a crap position and luckily it stuck.”

Pretorius didn’t celebrate his remarkable catch. Instead he stood where he took it, shoved his hands onto his hips, elbows pointed, and waited for his onrushing teammates to reach him. Take that, suckers.

His only century in the format is an undefeated 102 off 52 for San Francisco Unicorns against Mumbai Indians New York in Grand Prairie in July. New York’s attack that day featured Trent Boult and Romario Shepherd — both significantly better bowlers than any of Tuesday’s Zimbabweans.

But maybe we should give the Zimbos a break. The full member minnows were, after all, on the receiving end of Pretorius’ only international century, his 153 on Test debut in Bulawayo in June last year.

It didn’t matter in the end. South Africa’s 185/7 proved 43 runs too many for Zimbabwe. And Pretorius is right in that he will have other opportunities to raise his bat in a South Africa shirt. He is only 20 and will rack up many more than his current 22 international innings across the formats. But he wouldn’t be human not to wonder, long after he has retired, what might have been in Windhoek on the first day of spring in 2026.