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Heinrich Klaasen's candid admission after whirlwind century vs KKR: ‘Owners spent a lot of money, we owe it to them’
Heinrich Klaasen scored 105*(39) in SRH's final game of the season, and thanked the franchise for persisting with the team's style despite a poor season.
Heinrich Klaasen and Sunrisers Hyderabad looked back to their destructive best in the final match of their IPL 2025 season, putting 278-3 on the board in a remarkable effort against KKR in New Delhi. Klaasen whacked a 39-ball innings of 105, notching the joint third-fastest IPL century in just 37 deliveries, and after the match credited the SRH franchise for having the patience to support their all-or-nothing style of play.
"I want to thank my family, and the franchise," Klaasen said following SRH’s 110-run win. "They spend a lot of time and effort and a lot of money into this brand of cricket and we owe it to them to step up to the plate and dish out good performances.”
After losing six out of their first eight games despite being defending champions, SRH ended the season in much stronger fashion, as they racked up four wins in their last five completed matches. They could now finish as high as sixth after a pretty tame campaign, and their firepower throughout the lineup will make them a fearsome prospect come IPL 2026.
"The franchise puts a lot of money into this. They've been around for 13, 14 years. And for us, we had a bad start to middle end of the competition, and it just didn't look well on the field,” explained Klaasen regarding the season, before crediting his teammates for pulling through to give fans something to cheer about. “For us to turn it around and we've played brilliant cricket over the last three and a half games. And to just give back to them as well."
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After being unlucky to have their match against DC rained out, SRH came back after the resumption to win each of their three remaining games, comfortably exceeding the 200-run mark in each of them. Klaasen’s century, which included seven fours and nine sixes, saw him finish as SRH’s top-scorer for the season with 437 runs, enroute to the third-highest total in IPL history. The top four scores all belong to the 2024-25 SRH team.
"It's been a long season of disappointment and sometimes against your processes,” explained Klaasen about why SRH stuck to their approach of aiming for these 250+ totals despite the inherent risk it brings of wickets falling in clusters. “Luckily, I stuck to it and finally I've got a little bit of reward tonight."
SRH’s performance against the team they lost to in the IPL 2024 final will be a small form of revenge, but attention will be on optimising their high-risk high-reward performances and translating that into a winning culture when IPL 2026 rolls around.
