A day out from Sunrisers Hyderabad's game against Royal Challengers Bengaluru, something was amiss with Heinrich Klaasen. For somebody from the outside, the wicketkeeper was striking the ball cleanly. He was dominating most of the six-hitting metrics (a league-leading 17 sixes after three games and the ideal fours-to-six ratio). He had also influenced games with his ability (an unbeaten 34-ball 80 helped the franchise score a record-breaking 277).
But the 32-year-old wasn’t feeling it. After a decent start to the campaign, two middling knocks (10 off 11 followed by a run-a-ball nine) had set him back. For somebody who’s the closest thing to hitting on-demand sixes in the game’s shortest format, going 20 balls across two matches without hitting one constituted a crisis. As soon as he touched down in Bengaluru, he got to work.
“Even yesterday (on Saturday, two days before the Bengaluru encounter), I had to go back in the net and work again,” he told this daily in an interview. “It was to fix the (bat) swing, to make sure I’m hitting the ball nicely. The last couple of games, it didn’t feel so great. You always fight those little mental battles.”
On Saturday night, he contributed to a wild Hyderabad innings with two big sixes off Kuldeep Yadav. The first was trademark Klassen as he launched it over the spinner's head to a ball pitched in the slot. A couple of balls later, deep midwicket had to fetch it from the stands. On a beauty of a batting strip, he knew he had to keep going. So, he chanced his arm off an Axar Patel delivery that came in off the angle but missed the line. But even during his eight-ball 15, one could see the effects of his destructive hitting.
"He's been exceptional for a long period of time and he's in that category of (Andre) Russell where teams really fear him," was how Daniel Vettori, Hyderabad coach, described Klassen before that Bengaluru match. "He's been so good for such a long period of time that he has allowed us to either win the games or always be in the game." Stripped to its very essence, that's what Klassen has given all the teams he's been part of over the last few years.
