HALFWAY REPORT: LHUAN-DRE LEADS THE BATTING WAY 

Halfway through the group stage of Betway SA20 Season 3, Lhuan-dre Pretorius is making a clean sweep of the end-of-season awards he is eligible for. 

The 18-year-old has rightfully been the talk of the League after not only starting the season with an incredible 97 against back-to-back winners Sunrisers Eastern Cape, but backing it up with an 83 against neighbours MI Cape Town to mark himself out as Paarl Royals' prized top-order wicket. 

The left-hander has shown that he fears no bowler, whether confronted by pace or spin and has a range of shots all around the wicket. All told it means Pretorius is the current leader in four categories, which earn end-of-season awards: 

BATTER OF THE SEASON

This season the Batter of the Season award will revert to the traditional method of the player who scores the most runs during the campaign. Pretorius’ current tally of 233 runs , places him 22 better off than his opening partner, Joe Root. 

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Just below the Paarl Royals duo is MI Cape Town’s Rassie van der Dussen in third place on 193 runs. Van der Dussen has a 50 runs buffer on the next highest runs scorer – leaving the Western Cape trio as the leaders of the pack heading into the second half of the group stages. 

BETWAY PLAYER OF THE SEASON 

Meanwhile, the Betway Player of the Season will this season again be chosen using CricViz’s MVP Rankings (click here to be reminded how the ‘algorithm’ works). 

Pretorius has accumulated 93.44 points to date, with the bulk (84.44) coming thanks to his batting exploits, with another four being earned for his two catches to date and five bonus points accrued through Royals’ four wins and his Player of the Match award against Sunrisers Eastern Cape. Chasing Pretorius down is Sunrisers Eastern Cape star Marco Jansen (73.85) and MI Cape Town allrounder Delano Potgieter (64.56). 

RISING STAR OF THE SEASON 

Pretorius and Jansen are also the leading lights in the Rising Star category, also calculated using CricViz’s MVP Rankings but only available to players who were under 25-years-old on the opening day of the season. Pretorius’ Afghanistan teammate, Mujeeb Ur Rahman (23) moves up from his sixth place overall to third in the Rising Star category thanks to his 54.31 points. This season, 28 players are eligible for the Rising Star award and 19 have already played. 

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