South Africa's Heinrich Klaasen was delighted to score 109 as they thrashed England by 229 runs at the ICC Cricket World Cup
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00:00 Hi, Klaasen. You were hitting like you were hitting for Sunrisers Hyderabad in IPL.
00:06 Did that anyway help the IPL experience?
00:09 Yeah, we've been not just that, we've been playing in India for the last five years quite often.
00:16 So we're quite used to the conditions and we had the training facilities over the last two days
00:23 has been fantastic. So we had a couple of good hits out there. That's actually the first time
00:28 that I've trained here as well. I've only played here one game. So the more the quality of the
00:33 training facilities help to understand the dimensions of the ground and how the wicket
00:37 will really play. Heinrich, you looked quite knackered there at the end. Where do you go?
00:45 How deep do you need to dig in those situations and where does that come from, that energy to just
00:53 sort of push on? Yeah, I had to dig really, really deep there. I didn't have any energy left.
01:00 Probably the help of my skin falls is a little bit high that helped. But on a serious note,
01:07 I've got family that's upstairs. So obviously chatting to them to help me through a little bit
01:16 of those moments. And obviously it's an honour for us to play for our country. And Marco also
01:23 played a big part of that. He told me today that he's got me and that I'm not allowed to walk off
01:28 the field if I don't score 100. And I told him, but I can't run. And he said, it's fine. Just give
01:33 me 100% every time you face the ball. And like I said, it's still a privilege to play for our
01:38 country. And especially in a moment like this, after a bad loss against the Netherlands,
01:43 you've got to dig deep for your country as well. So yeah, I've worked my whole life for it. So it's
01:49 a great moment. Just on your partnership with Marco as well, just how chuffed were you when you
02:03 think about it now in the aftermath, with how well you actually navigated that initial phase of your
02:09 partnership tactically? Because you're in a decent position, but you also got 13 overs left.
02:14 You're not sure, are you going to go full out? Are you going to consolidate? Just how chuffed
02:18 were you about the maturity he showed and just how you guys went about your partnership?
02:23 Yes, we were about two overs, myself and Aidan, two hours out before we would have pulled the
02:30 trigger anyways. And then obviously the back-to-back wickets that we've lost kept him in
02:35 the game. And then Marco has been working extremely hard on his batting and he's taking a lot of pride
02:40 in his death eating as well. He's been disappointed on a couple of the innings that he didn't really
02:47 pull through. So I'm so chuffed and happy for him that the way he executed today, his intensity was
02:53 a little bit low when we started off, but that wasn't any issue for us because we just needed
02:59 to rebuild for four or five overs. And I told him if we just hang on, we've got seven overs of
03:05 breaking them. And the way he striked the ball today, and like I said, he told me he's got me
03:10 today. And that's the best I've seen him hit the cricket ball in a very long time.
03:15 Two different questions. One is, three centuries in this year,
03:26 how special has it been in terms of making runs? Where does this innings particularly rank in your
03:32 number of centuries that you've got so far? And second question is, how much do you think has
03:36 South Africa, through its performances in the World Cup so far, has been able to surprise their
03:42 opponents with the way you have played cricket? Because today's win was just fantastic.
03:45 Yeah, it ranks up to one of my better hundreds purely on the conditions that was out there.
03:54 I really had to dig deep mentally. Physically, I was not in a good space, but mentally I had to dig
04:01 very deep there. And our World Cup performances, everyone obviously has got the tag of us, but we've
04:07 played some good cricket in the World Cups. We've been unlucky and obviously we didn't execute on
04:14 certain games. But if you go look at our games that we've played, we've played some very, very
04:18 good cricket in World Cup. So it's not a surprise that we're playing good cricket. We've been
04:23 playing, especially this group, has been playing good cricket for the last three years now. And
04:27 we've been maturing nicely over the last three years. And it's our time to really try to make
04:33 a big statement for the world that South Africans are very good under pressure. We've done it before
04:38 and it's unfortunate that there wasn't as much luck, because you need some luck as well.
04:43 Hi, Henrik. A lot of people will never know what it's like to bat in that situation,
04:52 you know, with the heat, the pressure, the crowd, etc. Can you describe it to them? Like,
04:56 what were you actually going through in those moments? It's like just breathing in hot air.
05:01 And every time you try to run, it's just sapping more and more energy. And then at the end of the
05:07 day, your body just doesn't want to work with you anymore. So it's just like almost running in a
05:12 sauna for the whole innings, which is what we obviously prep for. And we're used to these
05:19 conditions, but it still takes a lot out of the body. Henrik, I think with your celebration,
05:24 you were probably too tired to get to the other end of the pitch before you did.
05:27 So you did it in Mark Wood's face, but clearly you realised it was maybe not the right thing.
05:32 What did you say to him? I didn't say anything to him. I did go and apologise immediately and
05:38 after the game. He did hit me twice on the foot, which is hurting quite a bit. And it's just pure
05:44 emotions. And yeah, once again, I'm sorry for him and to the English boys, but it's pure emotion
05:51 that just came out and sometimes it's difficult to control. But I did apologise straight away and
05:57 spoke to him after the game and hopefully from my side, everything is sorted.
06:00 Henrik, I don't know how well you remember the press conference you gave after the England game
06:08 in Kimberley, when we'd never heard, at least I had never heard a South African player speak so
06:15 honestly about selection. And you said, they want us to play brave cricket and when we fail,
06:18 they drop us. As much as you've done on the field, because that has led to a massive change,
06:26 I think, in approach to selection and consistency. Do you remember that moment very well? Did it
06:32 feel like you were being brave at the time? Definitely. I know Lucy gave me guess about that
06:38 answer, but it was a time that we had to be honest. And to be fair, since then, and just a
06:44 little bit before that, the selection has been quite consistent and you can see it in the way
06:50 the boys are playing and the same group of guys are still here now after a couple of years.
06:55 So obviously the consistency was there. It was more a message to the coaches to back us
07:01 when we do want to play brave cricket. And we had some serious conversations about it.
07:06 And everything is sorted and the boys are on board and the coaches are on board and that's
07:11 why we're playing, I believe, good cricket at this moment.
07:14 After the low of the Netherlands and now today the high, what can this win do to South Africa
07:25 and its World Cup campaign? Yes, it was a big low for us, but it didn't mean that we're a bad team
07:31 or that we, after one bad performance, that we're not playing good cricket. We've been playing good
07:37 cricket, like I said, for the last couple of years now. And that's exactly the chats that's been
07:41 around. All the chats after the Netherlands game has been extremely positive. We had one or two
07:46 hard conversations as a group, but our chats has been positive and keep reminding the boys to play
07:52 aggressive and positive cricket. And it showed today that in a pressure and a tough conditions,
07:58 especially in the heat, that the boys are willing to take the game on. Riza got a late call, I think
08:05 it was about 10 minutes before, five minutes before, to point to us that Demba is down.
08:10 And to perform like that, then the couple of the shots that he played under pressure
08:15 shows where we are as a group, as a South African cricket group.
08:19 And to maintain this form and go into the next five matches and be on top,
08:23 in the top four for the semifinals, how easy or difficult will it be?
08:28 I think the boys are in fantastic form and like you can see over the whole competition that it's
08:32 not every time the same person. So we rely a lot on each other. A lot of conversations go
08:38 in the back room. So we just rely on each other. We trust each other and
08:44 we've got each other's back at this moment. So I think that's why we're good and why we
08:50 can keep going because it's every time someone else stepping up to the plate.