Despite falling from 70 without loss to 88/4 while Pakistan allrounder Salman Agha spun circles around the Proteas attack, South Africa batsman Heinrich Klaasen insisted their are no major concerns for his team against the tweakers.
South Africa lost by three wickets to the visitors in the first One-Day International in Paarl on Tuesday, in what turned out to be a thrilling contest as Pakistan won the match with three balls to spare.
Openers Tony de Zorzi (33) and Ryan Rickelton (36) had combined for a solid opening stand, before Agha (4/32) ripped the heart out of the Proteas top order.
Klaasen, however, together with Aiden Markram (35) staged a fightback with a 73-run stand for the fifth wicket. Klaasen would go on to top score for the Proteas with 86, but 239/9 never looked like enough.
Afterwards, Klaasen did not entertain any suggestions that his side’s poor performance against spin was a problem.
Heinrich Klaasen is starting to find his range 🚀🚀
— SuperSport 🏆 (@SuperSportTV) December 17, 2024
The @ProteasMenCSA are on 150/4 after 28 overs 🏏
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'We rectified that'
“Not at all, if you look at our stats against spin over the last three or four years, it's been incredible,” said Klaasen.
“I know we had that reputation of playing spin badly, but we rectified that and if you look at all the stats that we had over the last three or four years, somewhere you're going to get a spell like this. Tonight and we basically missed the one that skidded on, not the one that actually turned.”
Setting Pakistan 240 for victory, though, was always going to be difficult to defend said Klaasen.
“No, I think we were about 20-30 runs short. We played it like a normal Boland Park wicket, so we didn't think it was a 300+ score, but those four wickets had fallen, I think in four overs or something like that,” said Klaasen.
“That put us quite a bit on the back foot, it's a somewhat key place. Then the ball actually started to reverse nicely at the back and in the innings, which made it difficult to just pull that trigger.”