Cuttack: While most of the other batters struggled to bat on what can be called a ‘slow’ pitch at the Barabati Stadium here Sunday, South African batter Heinrich Klaasen (81, 46b, 7×4, 5×6) seemed to having a ball. In fact it was Klaasen’s knock that turned the game in South Africa’s favour against India after the hosts had threatened to turn the match around.
Coming in to bat, with the visitors tottering at 29 for the loss of three wickets while chasing a victory target of 149, Klaasen took the Indian bowling by the scruff of its neck. His counter-attack paved the way for another South African victory and the win Sunday, gave the Proteas a 2-0 lead in the five-match series.
Later on talking after the game, Klaasen informed that he had come to know Saturday evening that he would be playing in this game. “Quinton de Kock came and told me that he had not recovered from his wrist injury and that I would be playing,” informed the wicketkeeperbatter after the game. “So I was mentally prepared and I had chalked out a plan that how I would bat, especially against the Indian spinners. I am glad that my plan worked out today. T20 is a funny game… sometime things go your way and sometimes they don’t,” he added.
Klaasen was the first to admit that keeping wickets had given him a fair idea as to how the pitch was going to behave when he went out to bat. “To be fair, I had an idea, how I would go about it (batting). Yes, the pitch was comparatively difficult to the one in Delhi. I realised that I had to counter-attack, because I did not want the Indian bowlers start dominating the show,” he informed.
South African captain Temba Bavuma lamented that they failed to be clinical in the finish. “We had the chance to be ruthless today, but we failed to utilise on the opportunity even though we did win the game. We have to keep that in our head,” he stated.
Indian skipper Rishabh Pant lamented said that the spinners had failed to deliver. “Till about the 10th over of the South African innings we were in control,” Pant said after the game. “We failed to take wickets at regular intervals during the second half of the innings and that was the problem for us. Our spinners couldn’t deliver,” Pant added.