Former Indian cricketer Aakash Chopra hailed Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) batter Heinrich Klaasen for his brilliance against the spin bowlers and reckons there are no better overseas players playing better spin than him in the world currently. The 31-year-old scored an exceptional century, finishing with 104 runs in just 51 balls.
The South African batter has been the lone warrior for the 2016-champions in this edition of the Indian Premier League and was promoted to the top of the order in the game against Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) as Klaasen dominated the RCB bowlers right from the powerplay to score his maiden century in the cash-rich league.
Speaking on his youtube channel, Aakash Chopra shared his views about the match between Sunrisers Hyderabad and Royal Challengers Bangalore, as he lauded Klassen for his ability to play the spinner, stating that he has given the masterclass of how to play in the Indian condition and reckons that he is one of the best overseas batters to play spin.
“The way Klaasen is batting, no overseas player is playing spin better than him. In fact, he is giving a masterclass on playing against spin to every player who is playing in this tournament,” Aakash Chopra said.
“He is playing extremely well. In the last match, the match before that, and in this match, his play against spin was absolutely stellar. He is playing very well by using the depth of the crease. None of the other players (SRH batters) fired, that is also par for the course.”
The Proteas batter’s knock went in vain, as he found no support from the other batters as they combined only to score only 76 runs off 69 balls in the 20 overs. The South African wicketkeeper has been the best batter for the Hyderabad side throughout the season, scoring 430 runs at an average of 53.75 and a strike rate of 179.17.
Faf du Plessis Consistency Is Going At A Different Level – Aakash Chopra
Aakash Chopra hailed the RCB openers Fa du Plessis and Virat Kohli for their consistency in batting to take on the bowlers and feels that in the KGF trio, Kohli and Faf performed well against the 2016-champions as Glenn Maxwell was not much required to chase the total, as he walked into bat with only 15 runs to chase.
“When RCB got to bat, Kohli was not alone, Faf was alongside him. Faf du Plessis’ consistency is going at a different level. We keep talking about KGF (Virat Kohli, Glenn Maxwell, and Faf du Plessis) but KGF has the might. This time ‘K’ and ‘F’ did the job and ‘G’ wasn’t required,” Aakash Chopra added.
Royal Challengers Bangalore will take on the defending Gujarat Titans in the final league stage on May 21 in Chinnaswamy Stadium and they will look to win the game and make it into the playoffs for the 4th consecutive time in the league stage.