Heinrich Klaasen has now scored more runs in a single T20 tournament for someone batting at No. 4 or lower. Nobody had ever scored 600. He still has a possible three more matches to come.
Yet it might not be unfair to say that this IPL has not shown us the most destructive Klaasen can be. For example, the No. 2 on the list for most runs from outside the top order in a single tournament, Rishabh Pant, scored 579 runs at a strike rate of 175.98 in the 2018 IPL when all Nos 4 to 7 put together went at 140.36. Eight years later, in this IPL, Nos 4 to 7 have gone at 148.4, and Klaasen's dominance over them is less stark at 159.47.
There are reasons, though. For starters, Klaasen follows the most destructive top three in the league and precedes a brittle and untested lower middle order. So part of his role is to provide consistency and reliability in the middle order. Not only has he managed to do that, he has done that at a pace quicker than every regular No.4 bar Rajat Patidar.
Then Klaasen has had to fight some ring rust. No longer an international cricketer, he had a lean run coming into the IPL. Not only has he had time to work on his game in higher-quality nets than in other tournaments, his new role allowed him that little bit of extra time to play himself in. His starts this IPL have been slower than they have ever been.
Then again it is possible to understand and respect the circumstances but also miss the Klaasen who used to terrify bowlers. Towards the end of the tournament, though, Klaasen has begun to answer that yearning.
He was the Player of the Match in the win against Mumbai Indians in Mumbai, but his innings against Royal Challengers Bengaluru in Hyderabad on Friday was the one during which you really felt the real might of Klaasen's game. The acceleration of 46 off 15 balls after a slow, frustrating start was as frightening as Klaasen has been since he retired from international cricket.
The turnaround almost didn't happen this way. Josh Hazlewood was about to bowl the 12th over, but he had been off the field and still needed to spend two more minutes back on the field to become eligible to bowl again. And it was in the 13th over that Klaasen had a short leg-side boundary to target. Also, in his words, it was now time to either start scoring quickly or get out because at 5 off nine he was slowing the team down.
What a time then for Hazlewood, already shaking his head nonstop from the time he had been asked to wait, to bowl one of his more ordinary overs in any format and for Klaasen to make it the costliest over of Hazlewood's entire T20 career. Klaasen had felt the pitch to be slower than what he anticipated, but by now he had adjusted his bat swing.
Then came the shot that puts Klaasen among the most feared middle-overs batters in the world. It is when spinners defend square boundaries and bowl short of a length because they know they don't provide batters enough pace to hit short-of-a-length balls down the ground. It happens to be Suyash Sharma's stock ball, and not many manage to hit these, in the words of R Ashwin long ago, carefully constructed bad balls. Klaasen, though, can pull those with a vertical bat and generate insane power. This time he did one better, and hit over extra cover off the back foot.
A sure sign that this Klaasen was to be feared. There is no better time for him to reappear than on the eve of the playoffs.