The two are now good friends, having played together in high school and for the Paarl Royals in this year’s SA20, but that wasn’t always the case.
“We go back a long way. We played against each from U11 to U13,” Pretorius told the Sunday Times.
“He always bowled quick. I remember at U13, he bowled to me with a short leg, and I would just block it and try to frustrate him. We always chirped each other, sometimes it got a bit ugly.
“But it worked out,” Pretorius added. “We went to [St Stithians] College together and played for a very long time together.
“It’s much nicer being in his team than against him. We are quite good friends now, he’s very calm, a very nice guy, chilled and does his own thing.”
Eighteen-year-old Maphaka has already played for the Proteas in all three formats, with 19-year-old Pretorius staking a claim for white-ball selection in the SA20. He was the top run-scorer with 397 in 12 matches at an average of 33.08 and a strike rate of 166.80.
Pretorius carried that form into the domestic season, scoring two centuries for the Northerns Titans in the One-Day Cup and two centuries and a fifty in the 4-Day Series.
“That’s a very big thing, the pinnacle, it’s a dream of mine,” he said of his Proteas’ ambitions. “Things will fall into place as long as you do the right things, I’m just trying to stick to a process, it’s working so far and I’m not going to force anything.”
Photo: Shaun Roy/Sportzpics
