His strike rate of 194.02 against spin is the best among all batters who’ve faced at least 50 balls this season
Shashank Kishore19-May-20232:11
Moody: Margin of error for a spinner against Klaasen is very small
AB de Villiers called Heinrich Klaasen “one of the best players of spin” he has seen. Sachin Tendulkar marvelled at his “simple and uncomplicated footwork.” Kevin Pietersen praised his clarity in picking lengths. Chris Gayle was gobsmacked at the tempo he maintained. This was modern-day batting royalty awestruck by what they had seen.Fans wondered whether Klaasen was going to do to Royal Challengers Bangalore what ex-RCB players normally do. In the dugout, Brian Lara applauded with the pride a father would have at seeing his child achieve something special. Mayank Agarwal punched the air in delight as an advancing Klaasen muscled Harshal Patel over the sight screen to bring up his hundred. Minutes later, Harshal himself applauded Klaasen after dismissing him with a dipping yorker.Klaasen’s 51-ball 104, his second T20 century, on a Hyderabad surface where the rest of his team-mates made 76 off 69, told you of his command over the bowling and how he turned the innings around single-handedly. Klaasen admitted Sunrisers Hyderabad were a few runs short, and he was right. It would’ve been enough on most nights, but for a peerless Virat Kohli and Faf du Plessis.Related
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ESPNcricinfo’s Total Impact valued Klaasen’s 104 runs at 152. It’s calculated based on the context of the performance. In this case, it factored in the situation in which Klaasen began his innings – in the fifth over after the openers fell cheaply. It quantifies pressure by factoring in overs left, quality of batters at the crease and those to follow, quality of the bowling, and overs each bowler has left. The conditions weren’t easy either, and Klassen said there was slowness in the pitch.The hallmark of Klaasen’s hundred was the manner in which he attacked spin, especially when they pitched short. On the broadcast, they showed how Klaasen’s interception point while playing off the back foot against spin was behind any other batter this season. It told you of the time he had and his superb use of the crease.Klaasen’s strike rate of 194.02 against spin is the best among all batters who have faced at least 50 balls this season. Shivam Dube comes a distant second best at 172.64. Incredibly, he’s only one of three overseas players in IPL history to average 50-plus and strike at 175 or more while scoring 400 plus in a season. It puts him in an elite club with Chris Gayle and Andre Russell. That is IPL royalty.Klaasen’s performance has come across different surfaces that have slowed down as the tournament has progressed. And his method is intimidating without trying to intimidate. He doesn’t make exaggerated movements around the crease to throw the bowlers off. He isn’t trying to premeditate or play the paddles and switch-hits. Much of his strength comes from a strong core, a strong bottom hand and a stable set-up that allows him to pick different areas to similar deliveries. Like he did when he hit Shahbaz Ahmed for six over deep midwicket and flat-batted him to long-off to similar short-of-length balls on a fourth-stump line.Much of Klaasen’s strength comes from a strong core, a strong bottom hand and a stable set-up•Associated PressBut it wasn’t just his back-foot play that got him runs, as the legspinner Karn Sharma found out. Karn’s natural strength is to bowl quicker through the air with a flatter trajectory. When he dropped short, he faced the power of Klaasen’s pull. Because he’s so strong square of the wicket to balls bowled into the pitch, bowlers try to bowl full. Karn did that too, and Klaasen stepped out and lofted him for a straight six. He was simply toying with the bowling.”The ball was stopping a bit against spin, and there wasn’t much steep bounce from the seamers,” Klaasen said after his innings. “I try and keep it simple; the focus has been to have my head and hands dead still. Sometimes when you go searching for the ball, the up and down movement of the hands cause some inconsistency. The trick is to have hands and head as dead and still as possible.”It’s easier said than done, and to watch him execute his plans was to witness the mastery of a batter who’s coming into his own slowly but surely in the IPL. In their previous game against Lucknow Super Giants, Sunrisers may have rued letting Nicholas Pooran go as he tore into them in the death overs. A similar fate is unlikely to happen with Klaasen, for he’s been their brightest light in a pretty dark season.
