Virender Sehwag praises Heinrich Klaasen for his explosive match-winning innings

After a heavy beating at the hands of the visitors in the 1st T20I, the host South African has bounced back with a lightning explosion to win the second match by 6 wickets. The major credit of the victory goes to the stunning knock played Proteas wicket-keeper batsman Heinrich Klaasen, who played a storming knock of 69 runs off just 30 balls at a staggering rate of 230 and was well supported by his skipper JP Duminy, who remained unbeaten to take his side past the finishing line with eight balls to spare in the game. Both the teams have now brought intense excitement into this 3-match T20 series as things will now be decided in the final match on February 24 in Cape Town.

Sehwag in complete praise of Klaasen’s dominant knock

The Proteas skipper won the toss and asked the visitors to bat first. Indian suffered a crucial blow with top-order collapse during the powerplay, but then middle-order duo of Manish Pandey and wicket-keeper batsman MS Dhoni stitched an important unbeaten stand of 98 runs for the fifth wicket and guided their team towards a fighting total of 188-4. Both Pandey and Dhoni also reached to their second half-century in T20 internationals, during that partnership. But the Indians were also aware of the fact that the weather factor might be playing its role in the chase.

In reply, the hosts were also reduced to 38-2 after 5 overs, after which Klaasen joined his captain at the crease and started taking on the Indian bowlers. The former played a fierce knock which included a massive seven sixes, which never allowed the opposition to sneak into the game.

Former Indian cricketer and an explosive opener Virender Sehwag took to Twitter to praise Klaasen for his match-winning knock, which totally shifted the game in the favor of the hosts.  The wicket-keeper batsman was also awarded the Man of the Match for his defiant innings and leading charge against the Indian bowlers especially leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal, who troubled the Proteas batsman a lot in the ODI series, received a hefty beating of 64 runs in his quota of 4 overs.

“Bhaiya, Klaasen ne to class le layi aaj . Chakke pe Chakka,” wrote Sehwag on his Twitter handle, applauding the Proteas batsman for his match-changing innings.