Lhuan-dre Pretorius turns borrowed bat into a wand to hit maiden T20 ton

After a hat-trick of wins, MI New York suffered their second straight defeat in MLC 2026, seared by the onslaught of a red-hot Lhuan-dre Pretorius in the first game of Dallas's return leg.

Playing their second fixture against San Francisco Unicorns in three days, New York were hard done once again by a lacklustre batting performance after being put in first. And, for the second time this week, Matt Short's canny off-spin caused the damage.

Yet, the overwhelming post-interval highlight was Lhuan-dre Pretorius, who obliterated the chase with his first T20 century, reaffirming his position as one of world cricket's finest young talents.

"Young kid showing us how to do it here," Nicholas Pooran, the opposition captain, would later say.

On a pitch described as "really good for batting" by Pooran, Pretorius began with a fierce assault on Trent Boult, 17 years his senior. Two fours and a six set the tone in the opening over. About an hour later, he went after Boult again with three fours in a row. By then, the only chase left was his first-ever three-figure mark in the format, which he got to with a six and a four.

Such was the domination that the second-best score in the chase was 20. Yet, Finn Allen would take a bit more credit: Pretorius later revealed that the onslaught was made possible by a borrowed bat from his opening partner.

Allen departed right after the six-over mark, by which time, the Unicorns had blazed to 52. A cutter from Romario Shepherd gave them their only wicket of the day, with skipper Matt Short staying put as Pretorius nearly lapped up the rest of the runs himself.

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, he was cleaned up by a googly from Anirudh Immanuel, a 20-year-old leggie, who ran off ecstatically to celebrate his first T20 wicket.

From that point on, New York only slipped further. The only resistance came from Sunny Patel, who muscled the ball around to collect a vital 32. If it weren't for him, New York would have barely scratched past 100, losing their last four wickets for eight runs.

But the little blip of extra runs eventually mattered little: Pretorius picked the pace superbly, using his wristy flourish to club spinners and quicks alike, particularly in the mid-wicket region.

The shot of the match - after his clean, straight six to Boult in the opening over - was arguably a sweep from outside the off-stump to Rushil Ugarkar, best demonstrating his reading of the pace and bounce on the pitch. That shot took him to 98. A repeat of the shot was followed by a hug to Short, a kiss to his helmet, a beaming smile, and a century next to his name.

The only little scare came in the second over, when Shepherd yorked him and the umpire adjudged him leg-before, only for a review to save him. After that, only the New York bowlers needed saving.

Brief scores: MI New York 143/9 in 20 overs (Ryan Rickelton 35, Sunny Patel 32; Matt Short 3-24, Aaron Hardie 2-17) lost to San Francisco Unicorns (Lhuan-dre Pretorius 102*, Finn Allen 20; Romario Shepherd 1-17) by nine wickets.