Lhuan-dre Pretorious breaks Chris Gayle’s record of highest individual T20 score

South Africa’s young opening batter, Lhuan-dre Pretorious, has broken the long-standing record for the highest men’s T20 score of Chris Gayle, when he smashed a fine unbeaten knock of 188 runs off just 79 deliveries for the Titans against the Knights in the CSA T20 Challengers in Bloemfontein.  

The left-handed opening batter fell short of just 12 runs short of what could have been historic T20 double century. He surpassed Gayle’s knock of 175 runs for the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) against the Pune Warriors India (PWI) during the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2013.

How Lhuan-Dre Pretorius breaks the highest individual T20 score record

Pretorius smashes his third century of T20 cricket and has now tied with Aaron Finch and Marcus Stoinis for the longest innings in men’s T20s in terms of balls faced. The southpaw collected 13 over boundaries and 15 boundaries as he broke the record among the Knights bowlers, all of whose economy rates were more than 11.

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The Titans registered 267 runs for the loss of three wickets in their allotted 20 overs, which is the second-highest score in the history of the tournament. That game also boasted the highest individual score in the CSA T20 Challenge, Dewald Brevis’ 162, before the epic knock of Pretorious.

That was the first game of the 2026-27 season for the youngster. He came into the event on the back of his aggressive form. In the last two clashes, he had scored 94 and 101 against Zimbabwe and Namibia in a tri-series in September. He has featured in 22 games across the three formats.

Top 5 highest individual scores in T20 cricket

With the updated T20 score of 188* runs from Pretorious, Chris Gayle goes to the second position in the list. At the third position, Aaron Finch holds the record of 172 runs against Zimbabwe in 2018 during a T20I match, which is the highest individual score of the shortest format in international cricket.

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Hamza Khan and Karanbir Singh are tied at the fourth position with 164 runs. The former got it against Ivory Coast in 2026, while the latter notched up 164 against Hungary a few months ago.

Zimbabwe’s Hamilton Masakadza, Afghanistan’s Hazratullah Zazai, and Peshawar’s Sahibzada Farhan are in fifth position in the list with 162 runs. Now the question remains whether any batter could get a T20 double century in the game.