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 a red-hot Lhuan-dre Pretorius in Dallas's return leg.

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

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

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

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, which he got to with a six and a four.

The second-best score in the chase was 20. Pretorius later revealed the onslaught was made possible by a borrowed bat from his opening partner Finn Allen.

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.

Short's off-spin short-circuited New York's top-order, crucially cutting short Ryan Rickelton's early blitz. His 21-ball 35 remained their highest score, as their batting faltered against Short's accurate, grippy offerings. He bowled himself out by the ninth over, taking out the top three.

With Pooran stuck at one end without fluency, Kieron Pollard hoped to bring power into the game. On 16 off 12, he was cleaned up by a googly from 20-year-old leggie Anirudh Immanuel, who ran off ecstatically to celebrate his first T20 wicket.

From that point, New York only slipped further. The only resistance came from Sunny Patel, who muscled a vital 32. If not for him, New York would have barely scratched past 100, losing their last four wickets for eight runs.

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 was arguably a sweep from outside off-stump to Rushil Ugarkar, best demonstrating his reading of the pace and bounce. That shot took him to 98. A repeat was followed by a hug to Short, a kiss to his helmet, a beaming smile, and a century next to his name.

The only 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.