‘No excuse’: Proteas must get basics right against Australia, says Klaasen

The Proteas are running out of excuses following a poor run of form, experienced top-order batter Heinrich Klaasen admits, as they prepare to face Australia in a must-win ODI in Potchefstroom on Tuesday.

Trailing 2-0 in the five-match ODI series, after losing the T20 series 3-0 last week, the hosts will be looking to turn things around. But Klaasen said yesterday they needed to get the basics right and increase their intensity against the world’s top-ranked side.

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“I think they (Australia) are doing the basics very well and we are quite far off our basics at the moment,” Klaasen said.

“And the intensity they’re playing at is far higher than ours, so that’s two departments in which we’re going to have to catch up very quickly.”

‘Off our game’

While the SA team returned to international action a couple of weeks ago after a five-month break, Klaasen said they couldn’t blame rusty players or failure to gel as a squad for their growing list of crushing defeats to the tourists.

“We’re professional cricketers and the majority of the guys have been playing around the world during the off-season, so the intensity and the basics is not really an excuse,” Klaasen said..

“We’re just off our game at the moment and we’re trying to get back to it as quickly as possible.”

Time to click

Though he felt the hosts had raised their intensity in the second ODI in Bloemfontein on Sunday, where he top-scored for the Proteas (alongside David Miller) by making 49 runs, Klaasen admitted they needed to increase it even more.

He was confident, however, that they were on the verge of a breakthrough. Having bounced back against Australia before, he believed they could do it again and build some momentum ahead of the Cricket World Cup in India next month.

“We’re putting in the hard work. It’s just a matter of time before we click and then we’ll get it back,” he said.

“The boys really are putting a lot of effort in. Sometimes I think we’re trying a little too hard to get the basics right, but I think it’s also part of the game… and hopefully we’ll put everything together [on Tuesday].”