Indian Cricketing legend Sachin Tendulkar heaped praise on Sunrisers Hyderabad batter Heinrich Klaasen for his sensational century against Royal Challengers Bangalore in their final home game on Thursday. The right-handed batter slammed an outstanding century, finishing with 104 runs in just 51 balls, being a lone warrior for the Hyderabad side.
Coming into bat at 28-2, Klaasen dominated the RCB bowlers right from the word go, and his knock of 104 comprised eight boundaries and six maximums, which helped his side to post a competitive total of 186-5 at the end of 20 overs.
Taking his social media account, Sachin Tendulkar was awestruck by Klaasen’s footwork to take on the bowlers and hailed his innings as the best knocks in the recent past.
“IPL is a mix of creative and traditional batting. Today has been a Klaas-ic display of traditional batting. Klaasen’s footwork has been simple and uncomplicated, one of the best I’ve seen in the recent past. Treat to watch!” Tendulkar wrote on Twitter.
IPL is a mix of creative and traditional batting. Today has been a Klaas-ic display of traditional batting. Klaasen’s footwork has been simple and uncomplicated, one of the best I’ve seen in the recent past.
Treat to watch!#SRHvRCB #IPL2023 pic.twitter.com/mUVRTRxsYh— Sachin Tendulkar (@sachin_rt) May 18, 2023
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 69 balls in the 20 overs and their inexperienced bowling attack could not make an impact with the ball as the RCB openers dominated the bowling throughout the match, with the Indian maestro Virat Kohli scoring his 1st century in IPL 2023 and Faf du Plessis continuing his red-form to help Bangalore side register their 7th victory in the league stage.
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 batting a lower-down order for the Aiden Markram-led side.
Heinrich Klaasen Has Been The Standout Performer For SRH In IPL 2023
Heinrich Klaasen has scored his first century in the Indian Premier League. He made a comeback into the IPL following fantastic form in SA20 and for South Africa in recent times. The 31-year-old was part of Royal Challengers Bangalore in 2019 and he surprisingly remained unsold at the IPL Auctions in 2020, 2021, and 2022, before SunRisers Hyderabad secured his services for ₹5.25 crore at the 2023 IPL mini-auction.
Heinrich Klaasen has been one of the most consistent T20 players over the last few months. He was also superb in the inaugural edition of the SA20 League, in which he scored 353 runs in 10 innings at a strike rate of 147.60 and finished as the fourth-highest run scorer in the tournament.
Despite being one of the best finishers in this edition of the Indian Premier League, Heinrich Klaasen could not inspire his team to move up in the points table. With this loss, SRH has been officially eliminated from the playoffs race and is fighting to avoid finishing last on the points table. They will take on five-time champions Mumbai Indians in their final league game on May 21 in Wankhede Stadium.