Matthew Breetzke led South Africa against New Zealand in his ODI debut in the Pakistan Tri-Nation Series 2025. The whole thing was held in Lahore on Monday, February 9th. This competition is being used by both the teams to have preparatory matches before the mega event Champions Trophy 2025, which will be in Pakistan.
New Zealand v South Africa
New Zealand was victorious in the tournament opener and played South Africa in their consecutive match. Instead of choosing to bat first, New Zealand captain Mitchell Santner selected to field. South Africa, newcomers in the series, began with Captain Temba Bavuma and Matthew Breetzke leading the team with them.
Despite losing Bavuma early in the innings, Jason Smith and Breetzke had a 93-run stand. They added 93 runs for the loss of 5 wickets at a crucial time, salvaging the South African innings.
Breetzke, who was facing a bowler with no maiden over in the innings and who was the sole scorer in the team, faced 84 balls and, consequently, found his record for the highest score ever in an ODI debut match without any other individual scoring a single run.
They staged a 93-run partnership that put South Africa back on track after losing Bavuma for 6 in the 7th over. Breetzke then notched up his maiden hundred in his debut ODI.
Breetzke’s century was awesome, with 150 runs to his credit in 148 balls. He joined Hashim Amla and Faf du Plessis, the only other South Africans who’ve scored centuries in their first ODI match. Amla also, for the first time, got over 100 on his ODI debut.
Breetzke domestic cricket
The best part of the discussion was when Keshav Maharaj, the captain of the Durban Super Giants, called him a Virat Kohli, aka the Govinda of this cricket era. People generally see Breetzke’s play as very wild and unexpected. In fact, he played very well in Test Cricket. But to the surprise of everyone, he didn’t make a T20 World Cup 2024 team.
Telling his story, Breetzke started playing cricket when he was 14 in his hometown of Grey High. At the tender age of only 16, he became part of the South Africa U19 team. He then smashed 1,000 runs in 25 youth ODIs.
2018 was exceptional for him as he was one of the top two run-getters in a tournament. He joined the South African developing side to play Sri Lanka in 2018. Then, he featured for Eastern Province in the 2018-19 season.
Breetzke was a great performer throughout the CSA four-day First-Class tournament, where he was the best run-getter. He scored three centuries and four half-centuries and, on average, batted at a high rate of 60.58. The young player carried on his good form in the shortest format in South Africa, but ironically, he missed the World Cup selection.
Lucknow Super Giants pick Breetzke for IPL 2025
In the meantime, Breetzke was on board with Northants to feature in the Hundred. Without even a representative match for South Africa, he was selected from the IPL 2025 auction by Lucknow Super Giants (LSG). LSG bought him for INR 57 lacs only. His followers have all reasons to believe he will make a mark in the big-ticket IPL.
