Klaasen cherishes match-winning India knock, credits De Kock for platform on tough pitch

Proteas batter Heinrich Klaasen said he was chuffed with his match-winning contribution that allowed the Proteas to beat India on Thursday.

Klaasen made an unbeaten 74 off 65 balls, a man-of-the-match performance that allowed South Africa to beat India by nine runs in Lucknow.

The win allowed the Proteas to grab a crucial 10 ICC World Cup Super League points, even though they're still far off the top eight.

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Klaasen cherished the innings, along with the help he received from David Miller (75*) and Quinton de Kock (48).

"To score runs in these conditions, I'm chuffed and I felt it's one of the better innings that I've played in my life," Klaasen said.

"I had to dig deep and I had David Miller to help with his calmness and Quinton de Kock with his experience.

"That gave me a lot of options and I'm very pleased. It's been a good batting performance from the whole squad."

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Both teams bounced back from difficult positions of 71/3 and 51/4 respectively.

Where South Africa had Miller, De Kock and Klaasen to bank on, India turned to Shreyas Iyer (50) and Sanju Samson (86*) to keep them in the hunt.

De Kock was the only top three batter in both teams who made more than 30, an innings that proved to be the difference between the teams on the difficult Lucknow surface.

The quality and the impact of De Kock's innings wasn't lost on Klaasen.

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"It wasn't easy for both sides up-front and I think Quinny played an exceptional innings,"