Kevin Pietersen tells South Africa to un-retire Heinrich Klaasen for ODI World Cup 2027

“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 wrote on X.

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In the run chase of 244 against Mumbai Indians (MI), SRH's Klaasen walked in to bat in the ninth over. SRH lost three wickets within six balls and needed someone to get the run chase back on track. Klaasen did it perfectly, hitting four sixes and seven fours in his unbeaten 30-ball 65. SRH ended up chasing down 244 with six wickets in hand and eight balls to spare.

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Klaasen only middle-order batte rin purple cap race

Klaasen was named ‘Player of the match’ ahead of Travis Head who contributed with a 30-ball 76 and centurion Ryan Rickelton. He is also second in the race for orange cap, just 11 runs behind his teammate Abhishek Sharma. Klaasen has scored 414 runs from nine innings at an average of 59.14 and strike rate of 157.41. He has four fifties to his name as well. Earlier in the season, he was criticised for his strike rate but has considerably improved it in last few innings.

ABD lavishes praise on Klaasen

Not just Pietersen, former South Africa captain AB de Villiers is impressed with Klaasen too as he is the only batter who is in orange cap race despite not being an opener or no.3 batter.