"Man can make any bowling line-up a joke" - Twitter applauds Heinrich Klaasen's freak show against KKR in IPL 2024 

Sunrisers Hyderabad's (SRH) Heinrich Klaasen cemented his status as one of the best T20 batters at present, with a sensational show against the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) at the Eden Gardens on Saturday, March 23. The wicket-keeper almost got his team over the line with his 63 runs off 29 deliveries during their pursuit of the mammoth 209-run target.

The run chase seemed out of hand at one point as SRH were reduced to 145-5 after 16.5 overs. However, the South African batter, along with Shahaz Ahmed for support turned the game around with two heavy overs. He scored five sixes in the blink off an eye against Varun Chakravarthy and Mitchell Starc to reduce the equation to 13 runs required off the final over.

Klaasen took SRH to the brink of glory by hitting the first ball of the final over by Harshit Rana for a six, but the visitors lost the plot after that against the youngster's cutters. The right-handed batter was dismissed in the penultimate ball of the contest courtesy of a splendid catch by Suyash Sharma.

Fans lauded Klaasen for his efforts despite SRH ultimately losing the contest by four runs. Here are some reactions on X (formerlyTwitter):

"Amazing job by Klaasen and Shahbaz to get us back into the game" - SRH captain Pat Cummins

The contest also marked Pat Cummins' first time leading the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH). The Orange Army were firmly in control of the proceedings in the first innings, reducing KKR to 51-4 in the eighth over, but came up against a brave cameo by Ramandeep Singh and a blistering innings by Andre Russell.

During the run chase, SRH did their best to maintain the required run rate, but it kept climbing, and the loss of wickets in the middle order did not help their cause.

Skipper Pat Cummins dissected the defeat while praising Heinrich Klaasen's efforts.

"Close game in the end, wonderful game of cricket. Unfortunately didn't go our way. I thought for the most part, really happy with how we bowled. Obviously Dre Russ at the end there does what Dre Russ does, he's pretty hard to contain. Overall, I thought we did a pretty good job," Cummins said during the post-match presentation."

"It's one of those, goes one way or the other, amazing job by Klaas (Klaasen) and Shahbaz to get us back into the game and get us into that position. Who would have thought we'd get that close. Unfortunately a little bit too much," Cummins added.

SRH will play their first home game of the season when they take on the Mumbai Indians (MI) on Wednesday, March 27.