Heinrich Klaasen: The Key To South Africa’s Success In 2023 World Cup

image-ln9qgsa3Heinrich Klaasen will play a pivotal role for SA in 2023 World Cup [AP]

The name is Heinrich Klaasen, and he's a creature of habit. No jokes. The habit being dealing in fours and sixes and, when not, then preparing to get into that mode. 

At least, that's been the dominant theme of his 2023 batting. And we are speaking one-day internationals. To focus elsewhere on any other format other than that of the soon-to-begin World Cup would be daft. 

Klaasen is a batsman whose name, provided spelt correctly by most of us, would excite the organisers of the Spelling Bee contest to hand out prizes. 

Not that it is long like the distance his sixes cover, but it isn't the easiest of exercises one could engage in, the other being fostering hopes from South Africa to lift an ICC trophy. 

Perhaps our man, Klaasen, might himself agree. What do you reckon?

But all that said, let's delve into the world of numbers for true glory lies there, doesn't it? 

As a matter of fact, Heinrich Klaassen started the 2023 ODI calendar year with a bang, with knocks of 30, 27, and 80. This clearly suggested he was on the move. 

But as the year progressed and reached the end of the first quarter (March 23), the South African's talkative bat began making new kinds of sounds, and the West Indies found it hard to deal with. 

Yeah, it's the very team that's not participating in this edition of the ODI World Cup, having won it twice in the past and making losing one series after another a bit of a habit. 

The right-hander's century against the visiting Windies side was no ordinary ton; it was a hammering. 

It actually took the batters just 61 deliveries to score his unbeaten 119 this year. In what was a great knock against the West Indies at Senwes Park, Klaasen stroked 15 classy boundaries and five sixes. His strike rate in that game was 195. 

Let it be noted. 195. But that was that. 

Heinrich Klaasen's most recent effort for his Proteas came in the destruction of Australia, a long-time rival and also a sometime nemesis. 

On the 17th of September, Klaasen batted in a manner as if he were holding not a bat really but a mace. 

He ended up scoring 174 huge runs. South Africa ended up pounding the Australians. At one time, it did seem as though, the hosts would score over 450; gladly, that didn't transpire.  

But rather improbably, the third century of Heinrich Klaasen's one-day career resulted in a winning cause against a team that had bowlers like Hazlewood, Zampa, Stoinis and Neser.

image-ln9qqc39Klaasen was in sublime form against Australia [AP]

 And yet, there was more to the smashing century. It would turn out to be the 32-year-old's highest individual score in one-day internationals. 

At the moment, the destructive right-hander's career strike rate is north of 111 in one-day international cricket. He's actually taken just 38 innings to go well beyond 1,000 one-day career runs for his Proteas unit; the Pretoria-born's tally currently reads 1,323 runs in the said format. 

These are all ominous signs for a batsman that, let's face it, one doesn't get to hear a great deal about. It's both absurd and quite striking. Unless the majority of fans out there, especially those who love batting, are being paid handsomely every month by the elite members of Fab Four, it makes little sense why cricket journalism won't base itself around names like Heinrich Klaasen. 

Unless most of us have decided that the matters we are genuinely concerned about in the ebb of the game are things like Hardik Pandya's statements in the Caribbean, celebrity endorsements, the number of times Urvashi Dholakia responded romantically to Rishab Pant, ignoring a gem of a cricketer like Klaasen makes sense. 

But are we actually that dumb? Are we actually too sure that by turning a blind eye- and often conveniently so, towards a South African cricketer- we are being in sync with cricket from a larger standpoint? 

The truth is, the present-day South African team, one that still decided to keep Faf out of the core despite big white-ball performances in recent times, has plenty of names to be excited about. 

There's David Miller. There's Aiden Markram. There's Marco Jansen, who's coming good with the hammering bat down the order, having already proven that he belongs at the top level with the white ball. 

And now, there's this giant of a problem for bowlers of the world called Heinrich Klaasen, be it- Woakes, Adil Rashid, Logan van Beek, Pathirana, Rauf, Afridi, Boult, Lockie and maybe even Bumrah. 

He is, to reiterate, a creature of habit; a habit of firing half-a-dozens; a believer in the cause of South African cricket, and a champion batter who may now like to own the ODI World Cup stage. 

He's all this and more, but above anything, an uncomplicated batsman who seems at ease, as seen very recently, against both spin and medium pace. 

Here's a key stat pertaining to Klaasen. 

Despite playing not less than 299 one-dayers, Lara couldn't better his personal best one-day score of 169, which he actually struck during the Singer Champions Trophy of 1995-96. 

Rahul Dravid, who played no fewer than 344 one-dayers, has that 153 as his personal best 50-over cricket score. 

However, Klaasen has outclassed names much bigger than his own standing in the game, taking no more than just 41 one-day internationals for South Africa.