Top 5 South African all-rounders of all-time

#3 Lance Klusener

Klusener was the Player of the Tournament at the 1999 Cricket World Cup

On hearing the name Lance Klusener, the very first thing that comes to our mind is the 1999 Cricket World Cup where he produced a string of mesmerizing performances with both bat and ball and was later adjudged the Player of the Tournament, having scored 250 runs and taking 17 wickets throughout the course of the tournament.

Even though Klusener played a number of incredible knocks for South Africa, one of his most memorable performances for South Africa will be his unbeaten cameo of 31 off just 16 deliveries when he almost led South Africa to the World Cup Final.

Chasing a target of 214, South Africa needed nine runs to win off the final over and only had a wicket remaining with Klusener and Allan Donald on the crease. Klusener hit the first two balls for consecutive boundaries which levelled the scores.

However, in the fourth delivery, Klusener mis-hit his shot towards mid-wicket and ran but Donald on the non-striker’s end did not run initially and by the time he left the non-striker’s end of the crease, Mark Waugh had already thrown the ball towards Adam Gilchrist who took the bails off and the match was tied with Australia progressing to the final due to a superior net run-rate.

Known for his aggressive batting and swing bowling, Klusener first made his debut for South Africa in 1996 against England. In the 49 Tests that he played in, Klusener scored 1906 runs at an average of 32.86 and a strike rate of 59.80, hitting 8 half centuries and 4 centuries with his highest Test score being 174 against England at Port Elizabeth in 1999.

The South African took 80 wickets with the ball at an average of 37.91 and an economy rate of 2.64 with his best bowling figures being 64/8 against India on his Test debut. In 171 ODIs, Klusener scored 3576 runs at an impressive average of 41.10 and an equally impressive strike rate of 89.91, hitting 19 half centuries and 2 centuries with his highest ODI score being an unbeaten 103 against New Zealand at Auckland in 1999.

He took 192 wickets at an average of 29.95 and an economy rate of 4.70 with his best bowling figures being 49/6 against Sri Lanka at Lahore in 1997.