Cape Town - India legend Sachin Tendulkar has heaped praise on Heinrich Klaasen after the Proteas star struck his maiden IPL century.
Klaasen has been in prolific form in an under-performing Sunrisers Hyderabad team, virtually carrying the team’s batting unit single-handedly throughout the season.
He rubberstamped this form with a brilliant 104 off just 51 balls (8x4, 6x6) against Royal Challengers Bangalore.
“IPL is a mix of creative and traditional batting. Today has been a Klaas-ic display of traditional batting,” Tendulkar posted on social media.
“Klaasen’s footwork has been simple and uncomplicated, one of the best I’ve seen in the recent past. Treat to watch!”
Klaasen admitted that the key to his success was to keep it “as simple as possible”.
“It’s a pretty special feeling (to hit a maiden IPL century). The crowd has been fantastic all season, so it’s really great to get the first one here at home,” he said.
“The wicket was a little bit slow, a bit of ‘stoppiness’ from the spinners and not as much steep bounce from the seamers.
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A maximum to bring up the 💯
Heinrich Klaasen scored a brilliant 104 off 51 deliveries.
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“I try to keep it as simple as possible. The two factors that I focus on is that my head and hands have to be dead still. Sometimes I search for a bit of flow with my hands and then the movement up and down creates a little bit of inconsistency, so I just try to focus on keeping my hands and head dead still.”
Tendulkar’s glowing praise was echoed by fellow West Indian batting legend Brian Lara, who is also the Sunrisers Hyderabad coach after Klaasen finished as the Sunrisers’ leading run-scorer with 430 runs at an average of 53.75. His strike-rate is also an amazing 179.16.
“Klaasen played his heart out for the team for the entire season,” Lara said. “He was rewarded tonight with a 100.
“Obviously we would have liked to be in a winning dressing room, but so be it. He showed his class once more, his determination and his commitment to Sunrisers.”
Unfortunately for the Sunrisers, Klaasen’s brilliant 104 was matched by an equally masterful century from RCB’s Virat Kohli.
In tandem with the free-scoring Faf du Plessis, who struck 71 to further tighten his grip on the Orange Cap as the leading run-scorer in the IPL, RCB comfortably chased down the Sunrisers’ 186/5 to win by eight wickets with four balls to spare.
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