Klaasen the difference in a tale of two middle-overs slumps

In a neck-and-neck battle between two troubled laggards of IPL 2023 at Delhi's Arun Jaitley Stadium, Abhishek Sharma's new-ball striking was being matched by an explosive second-wicket century stand between Mitchell Marsh and Phil Salt that took the pitch and conditions out of the equation momentarily. Dramatically enough, both Sunrisers Hyderabad, having opted to bat first on a tacky surface, and hosts Delhi Capitals had a break in momentum after the early assault due to mini-collapses post the PowerPlay. How both emerged out of that slump ultimately proved to be the differentiator as SRH walked away with a campaign-reviving two points, at the heart of which was Heinrich Klaasen's maiden IPL half-century.

For the Capitals, the halt came between 11.2 and 13.2 overs in their tall chase of 198 where they lost both the set batters and Manish Pandey to never really regain the requisite tempo. For Sunrisers, the 13-ball period leading up to Abhishek's dismissal in the 12th over had them going off track before Klaasen took charge, striking at over 196, to give the visitors an above-par 197/6 on the board in the first place.

The three-over phase after PowerPlay saw SRH score at just 5.25, down from a very competitive 10.33 they achieved in the first six overs. Marsh, who barely put a foot wrong throughout the evening, had just sent down a double-wicket maiden in the 10th over SRH's innings, sending back their captain Aiden Markram and the destructive Harry Brook cheaply in the space of three balls. The scoreboard read 83/4 at the halfway stage despite SRH having recorded their second-best PowerPlay total of the season with 62/2 earlier.

Out came Klaasen at no. 6, with the team in trouble and not a lot of big-hitters to follow him.

"The message was quite clear - in this format you have to keep striking," SRH batting coach Hemang Badani would later reveal. "The message was to keep looking at a boundary an over, keep looking at probably about 8s an over at that point maybe for the next 2-3 overs.

"And we've always seen that on a pitch like this, which at times is lower and slower, a lot of the spinners come into play. The message was maybe just be smart about how you handle Axar [Patel] and Kuldeep [Yadav], but wait for the seamers, you'll have a lot of runs when the seamers come back into play."

Klaasen not only got the memo, he followed it to the T and then launched some into the orbit. He began by targeting the most inexperienced of them all, Mukesh Kumar - smashing the full ball over mid-off for four and launching the short one into the tier-two stands at long-off. The maiden had been quickly offset with a 24-run over right after.

As alerted, Axar proved a tad difficult to dispatch early on and was duly respected. But once he got his eye in, Klaasen provided just the perfect finishing touches with two consecutive monster sixes on the legside when the left-armer was just about preparing to sign off for the night. That set the tone for the death overs assault, where SRH looted 62/1 in the final five - and 114 in the second half overall - that made all the difference.

Klaasen's 53 had another 18 coming off compatriot Anrich Nortje, the highlight of which was a clean 97-metre six deep into long-on stands off a low full toss bowled at 141kmph that left an amused Kevin Pietersen wondering how quickly the game evolves. "It's wasn't long ago that the low full-toss was the most difficult delivery to put away."

Answering the team management's call for "batting with intent", Klaasen played just three dots in his 27-ball knock, two of which were a part of that unsettling maiden. The support and second fiddle in Abdul Samad at the other end was equally vital in posting a tougher target. Samad may have only scored a 28 off 21, but his effective strike-rotation and some calculated risks enabled the game-changing 53-run stand, in just 5.3 overs.

"Full marks to Klaasen and full marks even to Samad," Badani said after the nine-run win. "Samad came through a tough phase - there was enough conversation about him not finishing the game against Mumbai. But I thought he batted beautifully today. He showed a lot of common sense, he showed a lot of courage.

"And Klaasen, we've seen him in a lot of matches in the past and even for us he's been batting at a number which I think is the toughest number two bat in T20 crickt - at 6 and 7. I think he was just fabulous today."

While his solid basics and ability to hit clean and hard both sides of the wicket - as was amply on display on Saturday - make him an ideal candidate for that finisher's role SRH desire at 6 or 7, there's the second school of thought that believes he is maybe being wasted when slotted that low. More so on current form.

However, in Klaasen, SRH have nailed down a rare overseas finisher who can take on the middle-overs spin just as well as the pace at death for contingencies like the collapse at Delhi's two-paced surface. For a side with a misfiring top-order still in the rebuilding phase, having lost the set core of their batting in the 2022 mega auction shuffle, that's an asset to hold on to.