South Africa's Heinrich Klaasen on their nail-biting ICC T20 Cricket World Cup win over Bangladesh. Chasing South Africa's low total of 113/6, Bangladesh fell 4 runs short finishing on 109 for 7
Nassau County International Cricket Stadium, New York, USA
Nassau County International Cricket Stadium, New York, USA
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00:00 We've got Heinrich Klassen at the top table from South Africa.
00:04 Just a reminder please to put up your hand before you ask a question and please ensure
00:08 that you've got a microphone in your hand before asking your question.
00:13 Please be mindful of the cameras at the back, Zuna.
00:18 Thank you.
00:19 And we'll start with Neil.
00:21 Klassen, I just want to talk about the recalibration of the brain that has perhaps needed to go
00:29 on here.
00:30 Because I find myself at the halfway stage thinking, "That's a pretty good score."
00:35 And like, I mean, have you had to really make a profound kind of free adjustment about the
00:42 way you look at the game?
00:44 Yes.
00:45 I think David showed us the previous game out to bat on this wicket.
00:49 And it's almost a similar way that we bat in the middle or in a wonder game.
00:53 So our mindset is not even close to D20 cricket.
00:56 We just want to get in and find a way to bat a running ball.
01:00 And we know you're one or two hits away just for going over a running ball strike.
01:04 We saw India and Pakistan yesterday.
01:08 Even two great teams, they struggled to get to 120.
01:11 So that just means that we have to change our mindset completely.
01:15 You can't just stand there and just smack it all over the park.
01:18 So we had more or less of a one-day mindset today.
01:21 So myself and David in the middle.
01:24 And that seemed to be working.
01:25 And then the last three overs, we looked to take the game on a little bit more D20 style.
01:30 We talk a lot about the differences between the formats.
01:34 But I mean, coming from India last month to here, this is probably the biggest difference,
01:40 isn't it?
01:41 Yeah, it's a big change.
01:42 You see the scores there, 200 and a half.
01:44 Well, it was a month and a half ago we were part of a score that's 270, played 260.
01:49 So it's well off.
01:51 But it's part of the game.
01:53 You still have to win the game.
01:54 So the smarter teams and the way the guys have to bet, we have to adapt.
01:58 It doesn't look like this up all.
02:00 The Caribbean wickets are too much better.
02:04 So we have to play smart cricket and use our cricket brain a little bit more.
02:08 And just finally, we wouldn't advocate conditions like this, obviously.
02:12 But are you sort of quite enjoying it in a strange kind of way?
02:16 It's still good cricket for the cricket lovers that's out there.
02:20 Obviously, if you have to showcase it to the world and sell it, I don't think it's a great
02:23 selling product.
02:24 But for cricket, it's tight competition.
02:27 It brings the other teams and the high teams very close to each other.
02:31 So the game is open to any team that wins.
02:33 And that's the basics of cricket very well.
02:35 So for us, it's very nerve-wracking because every game becomes a really big game.
02:42 There's no easy games for us, especially in our group.
02:45 So it's still good, entertaining cricket.
02:47 Everyone is on the edge of their seat.
02:49 And any team can beat any team on the day on this field.
02:54 Yes, Klaasie, you've gone three games here now.
03:02 You've won all three of them.
03:04 Are you eager to go to the Caribbean now or you want to stay here and play the rest of
03:08 the tournament?
03:09 I think all the batters are keen to get out of this place, to be fair.
03:12 The bowlers would love to stay here.
03:14 But no, we've done our job.
03:16 That was the goal to win three out of three.
03:18 Obviously it was a little bit harder than what we thought, but that's also good preparation
03:22 for going into the next phase of this competition.
03:25 We've dealt with pressure very well in these three games.
03:28 And it's always good experience.
03:30 And you can put it in a notebook and always go back when the tough times are there again.
03:35 A lot of teams struggle to make even 100 runs here.
03:38 What's the power score you think that will win games for you in the Caribbean?
03:43 It's different.
03:44 I saw the stats that out of 18 games there's only been one score above 200.
03:53 Normally in the Caribbean it's about 160 as par.
03:55 If you get to 160, 170, you're in a good shot and you have to bowl well.
03:59 So I reckon that's normally the good scores there, or par scores.
04:05 Depending where you play, the wickets are very different around the Caribbean.
04:10 So I think it's a flick of the toss of the coin to see where you're at and what wicket
04:15 you get now.
04:19 You talk about changing the mindset from T20 to ODI.
04:24 Are there technical aspects that you change as well in trying to play on that pitch?
04:31 I did and it failed.
04:33 So we went back to just normal cricket and the technique.
04:37 But some elements still stay the same.
04:39 You still want to hit the ball hard and out of the inner ring because the ball doesn't
04:42 really ping off the bat or out of the outfield.
04:45 So you still have to hit the ball nice and hard.
04:47 So that element stays a little bit there, but your technique becomes a little bit more
04:51 tighter and you can't just be using your hands and just swing across the line.
04:56 So a little bit more technically correct, if I can explain it like that, than just being
05:01 free and able to give yourself room and do other things.
05:05 We talk a lot, it's almost a cliche to talk about assessing conditions and adapting and
05:09 everything else.
05:10 But was this one of the more difficult, with the pitch and the outfield combined, was this
05:17 one of the more difficult assessments that you guys have had to make, do you think?
05:23 We had some experience in Australia in that Perth, the Opta Stadium, of the similar outfield
05:31 that just doesn't really release, or the ball release, of the bat from the inner ring.
05:37 So we had that in mind that it's not going to be easy to hit your boundaries.
05:42 So we went back to experience like that, but the wicket also made it really difficult,
05:45 especially against the slower bowlers.
05:48 The moment there was a little bit more pace, you can still hit the ball out.
05:51 So we had some sort of an idea what we wanted to do, but we knew if we can get to 120, it's
05:57 a good score.
05:59 You've had a good amount of time here now and played a fair amount of cricket here.
06:03 I was just wondering as a player how you reflect on this whole project of bringing cricket
06:07 to a new market, a new city, and a temporary stadium.
06:10 Have you enjoyed the experience?
06:11 Do you think it's worked out well?
06:14 Yes and no.
06:16 I played in Dallas and North Carolina where I think there's a little bit more cricket
06:21 there.
06:22 The wickets are better, so it's easier to sell cricket in that aspect.
06:26 It's fantastic what they've done with the stadium here.
06:30 I think as the wicket matures, but obviously I think they're taking it out in two or three
06:34 days' time, so that doesn't help.
06:35 The more the wicket matures, the better these conditions will get.
06:38 I think it will be a better showcase for the people.
06:42 This wicket is I think four months old, so there's a lot of maturity that needs to go
06:45 into the wicket that will produce bigger scores.
06:49 I think they've done an incredible job.
06:52 There was a lot of fans out there.
06:53 It was very, very loud.
06:55 The previous games as well, the stadium gets very loud.
06:58 So I think in that aspect it was a good success, but I would have liked to see 150, 160 scores.
07:05 Is there anywhere you think cricket should be going to next?
07:07 Maybe Argentina, Brazil, Russia?
07:10 I think there's a lot of places where I know there was a Europe League that was started
07:16 and that got cancelled.
07:18 We open as cricketers for anywhere as long as it's good conditions and we can play good
07:24 cricket and we're all open for it.
07:26 I think it's a good idea to play maybe T20 cricket around the world in different countries.
07:31 So I'm open for that idea.
07:34 What was the thought process behind batting first?
07:37 Third game on the wicket, these guys are incredible when the wicket becomes slow.
07:44 So that was the biggest reason why we didn't want to chase 120, because the wicket was
07:49 definitely better than the other games.
07:51 But given Bangladesh, when pressure is on and they have to go into gutters, they've
07:55 got some of the world's best gutter bowlers and their spinners are high quality.
07:58 So that was the biggest reason why we chose to bat first.
08:04 If you look at yesterday's match and today's match, there were a lot of similarities.
08:09 Pitch was playing similarly.
08:12 It was a low-scoring strategic match, just like yesterday.
08:17 It's still T20.
08:18 And if you listen to a lot of the pundits in the fans, there are a lot of people saying,
08:22 "Attack, attack earlier."
08:24 The one big exception to all of the innings was Quinton's today.
08:30 If you look at the two matches together, other than Nassim Shah at the end in the last over
08:34 yesterday, he had the highest strike rate.
08:36 He had 18 off 11 balls, he had three boundaries.
08:40 So that was the most attacking knocks that we saw in the past couple of days.
08:44 And yes, he got out for 18.
08:46 But how important was it for your opener to put an aggressive, decent score early on on
08:53 the board?
08:54 Even though you were batting first, knowing you were looking at probably a low score,
08:59 how much did that help?
09:00 Yeah, definitely.
09:01 But I think there's only two ways you can go about it in the power play.
09:05 It's either try to survive and build up the innings to, let's say, the 12 over wickets
09:09 and end and see what you can do.
09:11 Or you've got to go extremely hard, and that's what Quinton wanted to do today.
09:14 That was his game plan for the previous game as well, to go extremely hard in the power
09:18 play, because it's already difficult to get the ball out of the inner ring.
09:22 So it's better to hit it up in the end, find some space in the outfield.
09:25 So unfortunately, he got a ball that kept low, because otherwise that ball would also
09:30 have kept on travelling into the third tier today.
09:32 He was hitting it nice and sweetly.
09:33 So yeah, you can go hard at it, or you have to keep your wickets in hand.
09:38 So only two ways.
09:39 And he got us to a good start, but then we lost a couple of wickets.
09:42 But it's right back, exactly like the other games as well.
09:45 [BLANK_AUDIO]