'India playing in 2 sides of the world...': Heinrich Klaasen's heartbreaking take on South African cricket's status

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Heinrich Klaasen has lamented the fact that South Africa's T20I series against India consists of just four matches with the last one scheduled for Friday and said that this reflects on what the status of the country is at the moment in the sport. India took a 2-1 lead in the series after they won the third match at Centurion, which means that the most South Africa do on Friday is draw the rubber.

Klaasen was asked by reporters after the match on Wednesday about what the Proteas thought about the fact that all they can do is draw the series in the final match. "That's the nature of where we are in South African cricket," he said.

“We don't play any more five-match series. Our Test team are playing two-Test series, which is ridiculous. How nice would it be if we win on Friday, and Sunday is another game that we're going into at two-all?”

Klaasen said that South Africa would like to play more cricket and longer series against other international sides. “It's disappointing and it doesn't sit well with the players because we want to play more cricket against these guys and other countries. But we always find a way to just play two or three games and it's annoying. Then you see India are playing on Friday in two different sides of the world,” he said.

'Have to make sure we don't lose the series'

South Africa haven't played a Test series consisting of more than two matches since their 2022/23 tour of Australia. The last time they played more than three Tests was in December 2019 and January 2020, when they hosted England for four. Their most recent five-Test series was at home against England in December 2004 and January 2005. Only one of South Africa's last 16 bilateral ODI rubbers was of more than three games - against Australia at home in September 2023.

Klaasen said that it is good that the deciding match comes in less than two days after their bruising defeat in the third T20I. “But it is what it is and we have to make sure that we don't lose the series. There's no time to dwell on this. We will make small tweaks and plan, which we can do tomorrow and the day of the game. It's good that the next game is in two days. If you're in good form or bad form, everything happens quickly and you can just move on,” he said.

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