Legendary pacer South African Dale Steyn compared Reeza Hendricks’ cover drive to that of former India captain Virat Kohli in terms of technical ability following his brilliant batting against India in the 2nd T20 International on Tuesday. The 34-year-old played a counter-attacking knock to help the Proteas chase down the target.
Reeza Hendricks, who did not play in last year’s T20 World Cup but is South Africa’s leading run-scorer in the tournament this year, reinforced his claim to the opener’s job with another dominant innings. The Proteas opener fell one run short of his seventh T20I fifty but played a pivotal role in South Africa’s victory in Gqeberha.
Speaking on Star Sports, Dale Steyn hailed South African opener Reeza Hendricks for his technical skillset in the game alongside his power hitting and compared his cover drive to that of Indian batting maestro Virat Kohli, who has one of the best cover drives in World Cricket.
“He played so beautifully, technically correct but he also has an incredible power game and he is a wonderful timer of the ball. We talk about Virat Kohli having the classical beautiful drive, Reeza Hendricks is right up there in playing that shot,” Dale Steyn said.
“You saw tonight how well he played. He read the game well and took it on when it needed to be done. It was a superb knock,” Dale Steyn added.
Reeza Hendricks laid the foundation for the chase against India, scoring 49 runs in 27 balls keeping up the run-rate in powerplay. Hendricks has been on fire in white ball cricket in recent years, with many claiming that he should have opened the innings for South Africa in the 2023 ODI World Cup instead of skipper Temba Bavuma.
Reeza Hendricks Rode His Luck And Batted Really Well – Dale Steyn
Dale Steyn believes that the Men in Blue were unlucky not to get Reeza Hendricks’s wicket early in the innings, with a couple of edges of him falling away for slip fielders, and that the South Africa opener rode his luck to help his team win the second T20 Internationals.
“India were a little unlucky. They found the edge of his bat once or twice at the start. They put in a second slip there, he was quite in position and they went a little wide but he managed to get a couple of sneaky boundaries but that’s cricket. He rode his luck and batted really well at the end of the day,” Dale Steyn concluded.
South Africa overcame India by five wickets (DLS) in a second T20I in Gqeberha. The Proteas now have an unassailable 1-0 lead in the three-match series, with the series decider on Thursday.
