New Delhi, April 30 Former England cricketer Kevin Pietersen reserved special praise for Heinrich Klaasen after the 34-year-old batter's 65-run innings, which helped Sunrisers Hyderabad's win over Mumbai Indians, saying the South Africa cricket board should ask Klassen to join the national team for the ODI World Cup in 2027.
After Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma gave SRH a flying start in their chase of 244, Klaasen, the highest run-scorer of the season from the batting position number four and onwards, contributed 65 off just 30, laced with seven boundaries and four maximums, as SRH raced to a finish with eight balls to spare.
"There should be a phone call this morning from the South African cricket board to Heinrich Klaasen to ask him if he can rejoin international cricket and be a central figure in their campaign to try and win their first ever World Cup, which will be in South Africa next year," Pietersen said in an X post.
Earlier, batting first, MI rode on to Ryan Rickelton's unbeaten 123 from just 55 deliveries, which featured ten fours and eight sixes, posted a 243/5 on the board. In response, SRH recorded the fourth highest run-chase in IPL, powered by blazing half-centuries from Travis Head and Klaasen.
After their fifth successive win of the season, SRH moved to the third spot on the points table. Speaking after the game, Klassen said, "It's nice to contribute to the team. It's a great win for us and hopefully we can repeat it at home. Like I said earlier, if they're going at 15, 16, it's going to make your life a little bit easier (on the openers). So when I got in, I think we needed just under 10s chasing 250, so that's an incredible job from them."
--IANS
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