Klaasen hopes that Proteas would find their bat swings on better pitches

South Africa began their Super Eight campaign on a high note after defeating the United States of America (USA)by 18 runs in Antigua. Earlier, they had a great run in the group stages of the tournament, where they didn’t lose a single game. However, they had to play all four games at the Nassau County Stadium in New York, which helped the bowlers a lot more. 

Speaking before their second Super Eight game against England, keeper batter Heinrich Klassen believed that the pitches in West Indies would be much better for batting, just like the one they experienced against the USA. 

“It was a good outing for the batters,” Klaasen said. 

“I think the batters needed it more than the bowlers. Guys getting their swings again. It was quite difficult in America. And looking around the Caribbean, the wickets are getting better and better. But we don't keep our hopes up…Hopefully, on better wickets, we can find our swings and be our natural selves.”

Despite the unfriendly and occasionally dangerous conditions for batting that were dished in the US, Klassen maintained that playing high-pressure games on challenging surfaces has done a great deal of good for his side. 

“Yes, I think the US part of the tournament has done the team a lot of good in my eyes,” Klassen acknowledged. 

“We played high-pressure situations quite well, and we took a lot of learning from it. So, on good wickets the guys look like they're keeping calm and they know their game plans and it's all about execution and I don't think against the USA our death eating was particularly great. They bowled extremely well and we're looking forward to finding our swings again and hopefully we can cash in against England.”

The opposition, England, didn’t start their tournament on the best note possible, as their qualification came under jeopardy after their game against Scotland got rained out and they lost the one against Australia. 

“Yeah, they've had a different tournament with a lot of rain and rain affected games and but they're extremely dangerous side,” Klaasen remarked. 

“They've got a lot of match winners and we need to be aware of that and play our big moments better than what they do, but Cricket is a funny game. Like we saw this whole World Cup so far. So hopefully we can continue our trend of playing good cricket under pressure and it will be fantastic if we, as South Africa, can go two out of two and hopefully close the spots for the semi-finals for ourselves.”

South Africa, meanwhile, hasn’t been able to put a dominating performance in any of the games they played despite winning them. Teams have been able to make comebacks in the game and even stretch South Africa for a win, just like the US did a day ago. Klaasen acknowledged that but also lauded the team’s temperament to overcome such situations and notch up the wins. 

“We had four scrappy games that we pulled through. It wasn't pretty,” Klaasen accepted. 

“Our batters bowled incredibly well in those four or five games now. So, the batters just find a way to scrap and we had to adjust our game plans a little bit…But the rest of the way we've been playing, the way we've been grafting and adapting to conditions is brilliant, and that shows the maturity in the group as well. 

So, yeah, we obviously are looking forward to that perfect game, but hopefully, that will happen the longer the tournament goes on for us and find it when it really matters.”

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