Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], October 21 (ANI): Following his side’s 229-run win over England in their ICC Cricket World Cup match, South African batter Heinrich Klaasen said that “chatting” with his family sitting in the stands helped him overcome heat and tiredness and smash a match-winning century.
A fiery century by Klaasen and then an all-out attack by pacers helped South Africa secure a 229-run win over defending champions England at Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium here on Saturday.
After the match, questioned on what helped him overcome heat and tiredness, Klaasen said at the post-match press conference, “I have got family that is upstairs. So, obviously, chatting to them to help me through a little bit of those moments. And obviously, it is an honour for us to play for our country. And Marco also played a big part of that. He told me today that he has got me and that I am not allowed to walk off the field if I do not score 100. And I told him, but I cannot run and he said, it is fine, just give me 100 per cent every time you face the ball.”
“As I said, it is still a privilege to play for our country and especially in a moment like this, after a bad loss against the Netherlands, you got to dig deep for your country as well. So yeah, I have worked my whole life for it, so it is a great moment,” he helped.
Klaasen said that his team has been playing in India a lot over the last five years and they are all used to the conditions.
Klaasen said that Marco Jansen, who smashed an explosive half-century, has been working hard on his batting and takes pride in his death-hitting.
“He has been disappointed on a couple of the innings that he did not really pull through. So, I am so chuffed and happy for him that the way he executed today and his intensity was a little bit low when we started off but that was not an issue for us because we just needed to rebuild for four or five overs and I told him if we just hang on, we have got seven overs off of breaking them and the way he striked the ball today and like I said he told me he has got me today and that is the best I have seen him hit a cricket ball in a very long time,” said the batter.
Klaasen said that the century is among his best purely because of the conditions he was out in while batting and he was not in a good physical space. He also said that his side has played some good cricket in the tournament so far.
“Yeah, it ranks up to one of my better hundreds purely on the conditions that were out there. I really had to dig deep mentally. Physically I was not in a good space but mentally I had to dig very deep there,” said Klaasen.
“Our World Cup performances, everyone obviously has got their tag (of chokers) over us but we have played some good cricket in the World Cup. We have been unlucky and obviously, we did not execute on certain games. But if you go look at our games that we have played, we have played some very, very good cricket in the World Cup. So, it is not a surprise that we are playing good cricket. We have been playing, especially this group has been playing good cricket for the last three years now. And we have been maturing nicely over the last three years. And it is our time to really try to make a big statement for the world that South Africans are very good under pressure. We have done it before, and it is unfortunate that there was not as much luck, because you need some luck as well,” he added.
Klaasen said that batting in these heated conditions was like “running in a sauna” for whole innings.
On the celebration of his century, in which he celebrated very aggressively looking at bowler Mark Wood, Klaasen said that he did not say anything to the bowler and apologized to him later.
“I did not say anything to him. I did go and apologise immediately and after the game. He did hit me twice on the foot, which is hurting quite a bit. And it is just pure emotion. And yeah, once again, I am sorry for him and to the English boys but it is pure emotion that just came out and sometimes it is difficult to control. But I did apologize straight away and spoke to him after the game and hopefully from my side everything is sorted,” said Klaasen.
After a loss to Netherlands, the whole team has had positive chats and players are reminded to play aggressively, he said.
“And it showed today that in a pressure and tough conditions, especially in the heat, that the boys are willing to take the game on. Reeza got a late call, I think it was about 10 minutes before, 5 minutes before the coin toss that Temba is down. And to perform like that, and the couple of the shots that he played under pressure shows where we are as a group as a South African cricket group,” he added.
Coming to the match, England elected to field first. Half-centuries from Reeza Hendricks (85 in 75 balls, with nine fours and three sixes) and Rassie van der Dussen (60 in 61 balls, with eight fours) set a foundation for something big.
But it was the partnership between Heinrich Klaasen (109 in 67 balls, with 12 fours and four sixes) and Marco Jansen (75 in 42 balls, with three fours and six sixes) that really upped the run-rate, taking Proteas to 399/7 in their 50 overs.
Reece Topley (3/88) was the pick of the bowlers for England while Gus Atkinson and Adil Rashid took two wickets.
In the chase of 400, England was never a threat and was reduced to 100/8. But a partnership between Mark Wood (43 in 17 balls, with two fours and five sixes) and Gus Atkinson (35 in 21 balls, seven fours) offered some entertainment to fans, but England was bundled out for 170 in 35 overs.
Gerald Coetzee (3/35) was the top bowler for SA. Lungi Ngidi (2/26) and Marco Jansen (2/35) took two wickets while Keshav Maharaj and Kagiso Rabada took one.
Klaasen was the ‘Player of the Match’ for his match-winning knock. (ANI)
