Heinrich Klaasen revealed that hard chats have taken place amongst the players and coaching staff to ensure that the Proteas avoid heavily relying on Quinton de Kock to score all the runs. 

It has been a common trend that when Quinton de Kock doesn’t score runs, the Proteas lose. It happened against England, and once again in the T20s against Australia.

However, against Australia in the first ODI at Boland Park, the Proteas middle-order stood up to the plate and produced two crucial partnerships to help them set a decent target for Australia to chase. 

Heinrich Klaasen was the talisman on the day with an unbeaten century, while he received crucial support from Kyle Verreynne (48) and David Miller (50). 

When asked about what the difference was in this match against Australia compared to the 1st and final T20 where they were completely humiliated, Klaasen answered honestly. 

“[We had] hard chats. That’s the one thing we’ve been doing the last couple of weeks,” said Klaasen. 

“It’s not a Quinton de Kock show. He’s an incredible player but we can’t put all the pressure on him. 

“The coach and Quinny also asked us, that if he doesn’t score runs that someone needs to step up. We chatted about that against England as well. 

“Quinton had a fantastic 2/3 series’, but someone also has to help him score the rest of the runs. He can’t bat for 50 overs on his own. 

“So the big conversations and hard chats we had is that someone else also needs to take it on the chin, man up and produce runs as well.” 

The Proteas played amazingly as a unit in the first ODI and will look to build on their performance in the next match on Wednesday 4 March in Bloemfontein.