T20 WC - At IPL, no one complained about 270-run wickets: Klaasen to batters on adjusting to New York pitch

When the batters were making headlines for scoring over 250 runs in 20 overs for fun during the recently-concluded IPL 2024, none of those involved in smashing sixes complained, but when the playing conditions got tougher to bat, all took to their social media to complain about the pitches. Heinrich Klaasen - the most fearless T20 batter going around, feels the batters must adjust to playing at the newly built Nassau County Cricket Stadium in New York during the 2024 T20 World Cup.

With the New York pitchdrawing flak for playing slow and not up to the international standards, Klaasen asked those who enjoyed batting in the IPL should put in hard yards to score runs on these ‘difficult pitches’.

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During South Africa’s campaign opener against Sri Lanka at this venue, the Proteas dismissed Sri Lanka on 77 – their lowest total in the T20 WCs. Anrich Nortje, who picked four wickets for just seven runs in four overs, said ‘he didn’t think there was anything wrong with the wickets and that they were just different.

"At the IPL, no one really complained about 270 plays 270. Now the bowlers are getting conditions a little bit more in their favour, so I think it's just getting the balance right," Klaasen said.

"The batters need to suck it up as well. It's not always going to be a 200 wicket, and you have to play a little bit smarter cricket to get over the line. We don't mind if the bowlers got something in it; that makes some good entertaining cricket, and you have to use your cricket brain a little bit. It's just getting the balance right, too flat and too bowler-friendly. That's obviously why the groundsman gets paid the big bucks,” he added.

'We need to make peace with it’

Explaining further, Klaasen said all the batters have experienced such conditions before and must go back to recollecting those memories of how they performed at that time.

"We've got experience playing in these types of conditions now, so we just need to go back into the memory bank and take some responsibility that it might not be a wicket that we can just tee off and hit boundaries," he said. "We need to play some clever cricket and need to make peace with that."

"You can still hit boundaries. If you play on one side of the field, it's not that big, and so you can still hit boundaries,” he continued.

South Africa will face the Netherlands on Saturday (June 8).

(With inputs from agencies)