Heinrich Klaasen of Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) established his place as one of the top T20 hitters of the moment with a fantastic performance against the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) at Eden Gardens on Saturday, March 23. The wicket-keeper nearly pulled his team over the line with 63 runs off 29 deliveries as they chased the massive 209-run mark.
The run chase appeared to be out of control at one stage, with SRH reduced to 145-5 after 16.5 overs. However, the South African batsman, with Shahaz Ahmed as assistance, turned the game around with two powerful overs. He hit five sixes in the blink of an eye against Varun Chakravarthy and Mitchell Starc, reducing the equation to 13 runs required from the last over.
Heinrich Klaasen pushed SRH to the edge of victory by smashing the opening ball of Harshit Rana’s last over for a six, but the visitors lost their way after that against the youngster’s cutters. Suyash Sharma made an excellent catch to eliminate the right-handed batsman on the last ball of the match.
Fans praised Heinrich Klaasen for his efforts, despite the fact that SRH ultimately lost by four runs. Here are some comments on X (formerly Twitter):
Pat Cummins Praises Heinrich Klaasen and Shahbaz for Remarkable Efforts in Getting SRH Back in the Game
Pat Cummins led the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) for the first time of the match. The Orange Army dominated the first innings, dropping KKR to 51-4 in the eighth over, but were up against a courageous cameo from Ramandeep Singh and a searing performance from Andre Russell.
SRH did their best to maintain the needed run rate during the chase, but it continued to rise, and the loss of wickets in the middle order hampered their efforts.
Skipper Pat Cummins discussed the setback and praised Heinrich Klaasen’s efforts.
“Close game in the end, wonderful game of cricket. Unfortunately didn’t go our way. I thought for the most part, really happy with how we bowled. Obviously Dre Russ at the end there does what Dre Russ does, he’s pretty hard to contain. Overall, I thought we did a pretty good job.”
Pat Cummins
Pat Cummins added:
“It’s one of those, goes one way or the other, amazing job by Klaas (Klaasen) and Shahbaz to get us back into the game and get us into that position. Who would have thought we’d get that close. Unfortunately a little bit too much.”
Pat Cummins
SRH will play their first home game of the season on Wednesday, March 27, against the Mumbai Indians (MI).
