And not only because he and everybody else at the stadium for the third one-day international between South Africa and Sri Lanka had to share the space with a swarm of bees that halted proceedings for an hour.
\u201cThis is the biggest crowd I have played in front of and it was amazing\u201a\u201d fast bowler Pretorius said.
\u201cI know there were bees on the field but it sounded like bees were everywhere.
\u201cIt was a great atmosphere the whole time.
\u201cEven when you took a catch and you were running back\u201a everyone was cheering.
\u201cIt was awesome to be part of it.\u201d
Pretorius played his role in the awesomeness by taking 3\/19 from seven overs as the Lankans were dismissed for 163.
South Africa\u2019s batsmen hardly raised a sweat and the match was won by seven wickets with 18 overs to spare.
Pretorius\u2019 performance was easily his best in the four ODIs he has played \u2013 he\u2019s taken just two wickets in his other three games \u2013 and he earned the approval of his captain.
\u201cHe is pretty accurate\u201a he is consistent in his areas\u201a and he is open for advice from some of the senior players\u201a\u201d AB de Villiers said.
\u201cIt\u2019s an open door to chat to him\u201a I always like to work with bowlers like that.
\u201cHe\u2019s happy to use the short ball when the time is right and he\u2019s got a knack of picking up wickets at the right time.\u201d
Pretorius\u201a who made his debut against Ireland in Benoni in September\u201a is another example of South Africa\u2019s selectors making thoughtful decisions that pay off on the field.
\u201cDwaine\u201a in his hometown here in Joburg\u201a we really just wanted to give him a go and get a bit of confidence under the belt\u201a and I thought it worked well\u201a\u201d De Villiers said.
\u201cHopefully we\u2019ll see more of the same in Cape Town and (Centurion).\u201d
That\u2019s where the last two matches of the series\u201a which South Africa have already won\u201a will be played on Tuesday and Friday \u2013 hopefully without bees.<\/p>\n

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Sentiment rank: -1.3<\/div>\n

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