Didn't even have the tickets for the Pink day: Heinrich Klaasen

It was a crucial encounter that was played as the Pink ODI at Johannesburg where both India and South Africa took against each other for the fourth consecutive occasion in this six-match ODI series. A day that has some history associated for the home team as they boast of not losing any of the Pink ODI played so far and they did manage to keep up the tally and went on to beat the visitors by five wickets to keep the series alive.

After the important wicket of AB de Villiers, it was David Miller (39 off 28 balls) along with the young Heinrich Klaasen (43* off 27 balls) who stuck in a crucial partnership of 72 for the fifth wicket in all so valuable time to see the home team cruise towards the victory.

Didn’t have the tickets, two weeks back

Pink day in the rainbow nation is a festive occasion and cricket is the medium to do needful for generating the awareness. Heinrich Klaasen, the last night hero for the Proteas, had lost every hope to witness the Pink ODI even as a spectator and was on cloud nine when he got the opportunity to feature in the squad and rightly grabbed it with both hands to propel the team to the victory.

The fans came out in their numbers to support the #PinkODI #PitchUpInPink #MomentumODI #SAvIND pic.twitter.com/xBFMliubIb

— Cricket South Africa (@OfficialCSA) February 10, 2018

“It’s an unbelievable experience that I had today,” said the wicket-keeper batsman to Independent Online, who was ecstatic after the win. “I’ve always dreamt about this. Two weeks, I told my ‘missy’ that I didn’t have tickets to come to the ‘Pink Day’… It was an overwhelming experience for the wicket-keeper playing in his second game, “The crowd was unbelievable. I’ve never experienced something like that. At one stage on the field, the crowd were going ballistic and I couldn’t hear any nicks… it was an unbelievable vibe,” mentioned the 26-year old.

Lower order exploits

It was a tough day at the office for the wrist spinners due to the wet ball and the opposition took full advantage, even more, when Miller was given a few let-offs on being bowled on a no ball and got dropped on 6. “It was definitely a momentum-changer for us, getting that free hit. He’s so cool, calm and experienced, and he said that anything that’s in our slot, we need to back ourselves to hit. We were very calculated in our approach, maybe it didn’t look like it, but it was all calculated and planned out,” said Klaasen on his partnership with Miller.

To provide the finishing touch to the innings, it was the all-rounder Phehlukwayo who mustered 23 runs in just five balls to seal any chances for the visitors to come back into the game. “He hits the ball quite far. He told me he miss-hit a couple out there – I wish I can hit it that far,” Klaasen said of Phehlukwayo.