Sunrisers Hyderabad wicket-keeper batter Heinrich Klassen provided the required power finish to help his side post a challenging total of 197/6 against the Delhi Capitals, at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi tonight.
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Despite Southpaw batter Abhishek Sharma (67 off 36) playing a scintillating knock at the top of the order, the rest of the batting order kept losing their wickets in quick succession, to find themselves in some spot of bother.
However, the pair of Klassen and Abdul Samad (28 off 21) made sure to keep up with the scoring rate, and stitched together a partnership of 53 (33) for the sixth wicket to take the team total past the 150-run mark by the 16th Over.
Klassen was the aggressor-in-chief right till the end of the innings, and smashed his maiden IPL half-century of mere 25 deliveries, with the help of two Fours and four Sixes.
Heinrich Klassen Smokes Axar Patel For Massive Second-Tier Six at Arun Jaitley Stadium
The highlight of Klassen’s innings tonight was the back-to-back Sixes he had hit off Axar Patel during the 16th Over of the innings, with the first one being an absolute treat for the eyes.
On the fifth delivery of the Over, the left-arm spinner did not exactly bowl a half-tracker, but the ball was short enough for the Proteas wicket-keeper batter to rock back and find himself in a perfect position to hit the ball at the Long-on region for a mammoth Six, deep into the stands.
Post Abdul’s dismissal during the 17th Over, Klassen then joined hands with Akeal Hosein (16* off 10) and yet again scored majority of runs in the partnership which was worth 35* (18) for the seventh wicket.
Having played his sixth innings for SRH tonight, Klassen is already their fourth-highest run getter so far, with 153 runs at a strike rate of 182.14. He is in fact, just 17 runs shy of the top placed Rahul Tripathi, who has scored 170 runs across eight innings thus far.
