It may sound odd but arguably the best batter of spin bowling in limited overs’ cricket is a South African. It is not at all odd that he is equally indomitable against pace bowlers.
No wonder then that Heinrich Klaasen is one of the most fearsome batters in world cricket, at least in 50-over-a-side format, at the moment.
Klaasen has continued his classy batting and silken touch in the Men’s ODI World Cup. His back-to-back knocks at the Wankhede Stadium, including Tuesday’s 49-ball 93, have underlined his prowess in the format.
Having joined Quinton de Kock at the crease towards the end of the 30th over, Klaasen knew that neither he would face too much of spin nor was he in danger of running out steam on yet another hot and humid day, as he did three days ago.
Still, he made the most of the nine balls he got from the spinners, tonking 20 runs. But once Bangladesh employed an all-pace strategy and the pace trio misfired as much as their England counterparts, Klaasen was up to it. Before miscuing one in the last over, he had thumped 73 runs off his 40 balls.
As if taking Mustafizur Rahman to cleaners in the 47th over wasn’t good enough with a sequence of 6, 4, 6, 2 off the last four balls wasn’t enough, Klaasen was even more severe off Shoriful Islam - the other left-arm pacer - who replaced him for the next over from the same end.
The five balls he faced off Shoriful in the 49th over fetched him 18 runs, thus giving South Africa an outside chance of crossing the 400-run mark.
Klaasen’s carnage of pace attack on the red-soil pitches at the Wankhede Stadium over the last three days has been the same despite opponents. On surfaces where the ball bounces and carries to the Proteas’ liking, Klassen has been at his best.
Even on Saturday, he was brutal against England pacers as compared to its spinners. While he scored a whopping 94 runs off the 48 balls he faced from an off-radar England pace pack, he tallied just 23 runs off 18 balls against spin.
If Quinton de Kock has been setting the foundation, Klaasen has been taking the game away from the opposition virtually every time South Africa bats first. If he can do the same while chasing, the opposition attacks will be dreading even more while bowling to him.
