Heinrich Klaasen keeps it real‚ but creative
So speaks a player who has come to terms with his game enough to admit the folly of stepping too far out of the box last season
Heinrich Klaasen is 27 going on as old as you need to be to know the truth about this cruel‚ crazy‚ chaotic game called white-ball cricket. “It’s not about hitting the ball out of the ground‚ it’s about a positive mindset‚” Klaasen told reporters in Paarl on Saturday after scoring 59‚ his maiden half-century in Proteas' colours‚ in the third one-day international against Zimbabwe. “That means you need to graft‚ like the first two games in Kimberley and Bloemfontein. “It’s not all about hitting fours and sixes. It’s about playing long innings and trying to put pressure on the bowlers.” In Kimberley‚ on a pitch that made fools of all of us who said you can have any kind of surface you like in the old diamond dorp as long as it’s as flat as the Big Hole is deep‚ his “graft” was worth 44. In Bloemfontein‚ on another out-of-character pitch‚ he dragged the third ball he faced — which didn’t get up and made his feet look like they were cast in lead — onto his stumps. Despite his protests‚ ...
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