3 min readApr 30, 2026 09:09 AM IST
Former England international Kevin Pietersen said South Africa cricket board should give Heinrich Klaasen a call and ask him to join the team for the ODI World Cup in the country in 2027. This was after Klaasen played a 30-ball 65-run innings which helped Sunrisers Hyderabad chase down Mumbai Indians 243-run target in their IPL encounter on Wednesday.
“South Africa have never won a cricket world cup! There should be a phone call this morning, from the South African cricket board, to Heinrich Klaasen, to ask him if he can rejoin international cricket and be a central figure in their campaign to try and win their first ever world cup which will be in South Africa next year,” Pietersen posted on X.
“Those who wrote Heinrich Klaasen off hey?! He’s just unbelievable!,” he had posted in a separate tweet earlier.
South Africa have never won a cricket world cup!
There should be a phone call this morning, from the South African cricket board, to Heinrich Klaasen, to ask him if he can rejoin international cricket and be a central figure in their campaign to try and win their first ever…— Kevin Pietersen🦏 (@KP24) April 30, 2026
“It’s nice to contribute to the team. It’s a great win for us and hopefully we can repeat it at home. Like I said earlier, if they’re going at 15, 16, it’s going to make your life a little bit easier,” Klaasen said about his knock vs MI after he was adjudged the Player of the Match.
“Big gap at cow corner so had to take a risk early. Wicket was good. They (MI) had a quality bowling attack, so had to take a chance and see if we could make light work of it. (Abhishek and Head) put the bowlers under pressure. If they are going (at a brisk rate), it makes your job easier,” he added.
Did he just reverse hit that into the stands? 🤯
We are officially being Out-Klaased tonight 🤌
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— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) April 29, 2026
In the match, Ryan Rickelton’s whirlwind unbeaten ton was overshadowed by Klaasen’s unbeaten 65 as Sunrisers Hyderabad defeated Mumbai Indians by six wickets. Chasing an imposing 244-run target, Travis Head (76 off 30) and Abhishek Sharma (45 off 24) shared 129 runs for the opening wicket to set the platform for SRH.
Klaasen (65 not out off 30 balls) then displayed his all-round hitting abilities to guide SRH home with the help of Nitish Kumar Reddy (21) and Salil Arora (30 not out off 10) in 18.4 overs.
Earlier, Rickelton’s knock powered MI to 243 for five. MI rode on a 93-run stand between Rickelton (123 not out off 55 balls) and Will Jacks (46 off 22) in 7.1 overs for the opening stand to power the side.
MI skipper Hardik Pandya scored a valuable 31 off 15 balls before being dismissed. Praful Hinge (2/54), Eshan Malinga (1/29), Sakib Hasan (1/39) and Nitish Kumar Reddy (1/31) were the wicket-takers for SRH.
