Ruhan Pretorius looking to create more special Irish Senior Cup memories

They welcome Balbriggan to Ballygomartin Road on Saturday afternoon in the first round of Ireland’s biggest cup competition and have an in-form Pretorius in their ranks, which makes them a dangerous proposition for any team to deal with.

Pretorius has saved some of his best performances for the biggest stage, dating back to 2015 when he smashed six sixes in an over on his way to scoring 101 from only 49 balls in Waringstown’s victory against Clontarf and followed it up with another century (112) against Pembroke.

According to CricketEurope’s StatsZone, the 32-year-old has scored 606 runs in the Irish Senior Cup across 11 innings at an incredible average of 101.

"It's one of my favourite competitions,” he said. “If I look back from the Waringstown year right through to North Down it's a competition I've always had a bit of luck in which is brilliant and long may it continue!

"It's a competition which brings all the teams from Ireland together and you can get to know other areas.

"Balbriggan are coming to us this year but it's brilliant to have a bus trip to a different part of the country and see more of it.

"I'm hoping we can get through and get an away draw so our pro (Ludwig Kaestner) can see a different part of Ireland.

"It's always brilliant to have those memories and this is the biggest cup in Ireland. We hope we can compete in it this year."

Woodvale – without the likes of Harry Warke – have lost all three of their Premier League matches so far this season but Pretorius says the squad have targeted a big cup run and believes Saturday gives them an opportunity to put that in motion.

"We are struggling a little bit this year with quite a lot of injuries and then Harry Warke is away with university so we're missing four or five guys out of our team,” he added. “It's no excuse because the guys who are there can still do the job but it's just been a disruption.

"We did speak about a three-year plan and this is the third year of guys like myself, James Hall and Wayne (Horwood) being there and we want to compete in a cup, whether that's the T20, Challenge Cup or Irish Cup.

"We want to compete. We haven't had the best start in the Premier League but we can definitely compete in all other forms."

A bright spark for Woodvale has been the form of Kaestner, their 22-year-old overseas player who scored half-centuries against both North Down and Cliftonville Academy.

He will have a crucial role to play versus the Leinster-based outfit in what is a repeat of last year’s opening encounter.

"He's a very quiet lad but a brilliant kid who works very hard,” said Pretorius. “He's very professional in the way he goes about things and you can see he comes from a good cricketing calibre.

"He has amazing talent and is first class when it comes to batting, a serious fielder and bowling wise he will find the right pace."