Heinrich Klaasen smashed 13 sixes in his 83-ball 174 as South Africa set the best total in ODI cricket history in Centurion on Friday, September 15 during a crucial encounter of the 5-match series at home. South Africa needed to win to clinch the series.
On September 15, in the fourth and last one-day international in a five-match series in Centurion, Heinrich Klaasen was on a record-breaking tear and produced one of the most extraordinary innings in ODI cricket history. Klaasen scored 174 runs in just 83 balls, including 13 sixes and the same number of boundaries.
At SuperSport Park in Centurion, South Africa scored 416 for 5 in 50 overs, the biggest total in ODI cricket history, thanks to Heinrich Klaasen’s record-breaking performance.
South Africa was 157 for 3 at the end of the 32nd over, with Heinrich Klaasen at 25 off 26 balls. In the game’s final 18 overs, Klaasen and David Miller went on a big-hitting tear. The Proteas scored 259 runs in the final 18 overs, destroying the Australian bowlers.
The eighth-highest score by a South African hitter in men’s ODIs is Heinrich Klaasen’s 174. After AB de Villiers’ 16 sixes against the West Indies in Johannesburg in 2015, Klaasen’s 13 sixes are the second-most by a South African batsman in ODIs.
South Africa posted a large total in an effort to tie the five-match series thanks to Heinrich Klaasen and David Miller, who put together 222 runs in just 94 balls for the fifth wicket.
In 10 games in 2023, Heinrich Klaasen has scored 521 runs, including two hundreds and a fifty. In Potchefstroom in March 2023, Klaasen famously scored a 61-ball 119 not out against the West Indies. In that knock, he had needed just 54 balls to get his century.
FASTEST HUNDREDS vs AUSTRALIA
Virat Kohli – 52 balls in 2013 in Jaipur
Heinrich Klaasen – 57 balls in 2023 in Centurion
Virat Kohli – 61 balls in 2013 in Nagpur
Alex Hales – 62 balls in 2018 in Nottingham
This was also the 5th highest total for South Africa in ODI cricket as they laid down an early marker ahead of the ODI World Cup in India.
HIGHEST TOTALS FOR SOUTH AFRICA
439 for 2 vs West Indies in Johannesburg in 2015
438 for 9 vs Australia in Johannesburg in 2006
438 for 4 vs India in Mumbai in 2015
418 for 5 vs Zimbabwe in Potchefstroom in 2006
416 for 5 vs Australia in Centurion in 2023*
Adam Zampa was on the receiving end amid all the carnage in Centurion as he gave away 113 runs in his 10-over spell, the joint-most expensive spell in ODI cricket history.
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