Heinrich Klaasen spent Friday night time both watching the highlights of his 83-ball 174 or taking care of his nine-month outdated daughter Laya; or possibly juggling a little bit of each as he soaked in what he hinted was essentially the most fulfilling match of his profession.

"It was special and a lot to take in. I will go tonight and watch a bit of the highlights," a visibly emotional Klaasen mentioned afterwards, although he later turned on dad mode when requested what retains him motivated. "Having a family has changed things for me. The little one doesn't care what I've done tonight. I saw she's awake already so it might be a long night."

It was probably an extended one both means as Klaasen tried to make sense of a blistering knock that he approached with a Midas contact.

As it was occurring, he tried not to consider it and compelled himself to remain in each second of the match, a lot in order that when provided the prospect to take a seat out the primary a part of South Africa's fielding innings, he refused, in order that may very well be on the park with the remainder of the crew.

"What's changed in my career is that I am playing every ball as it is and for me to stay in that mindset, I don't recap what I have done the previous ball or think of what I might do the next ball," he mentioned. "Tim David asked me how many sixes I hit and I said I didn't know. It shows my mindset was good and I was only focusing on what's coming in that moment. I have to go back and look at it. It was awesome out there and you don't often get that feeling - maybe once or twice in your career."

"You look up to some role models and you want to be like them - like AB de Villiers. You want to play all the shots but the genius behind guys like AB was knowing when to play them," Klaasen mentioned. "For me, I explored a lot with it and it didn't work. It was about maturing into my game and knowing my options are."

That degree of fine-tuning solely occurred when Klaasen was dropped after a collection towards Sri Lanka in 2021. He missed matches towards India and Bangladesh in early 2022 and went again to his home crew, the Titans, primarily based at SuperSport Park. "The coaches said to me, 'You are using too many options. Let's limit yourself,' he explained.

What Klaasen removed was the instinct to go hard from the first ball, as evidenced in a small way in this match. He scored just one boundary in his first 10 balls and only two in his first 26. "I'm batting inside myself at the beginning to verify I get platform after which I can simply react to each ball: stand nonetheless, watch the ball and wherever I must hit it, my physique will take over and simply react," he said. "It took me a few months to get again to my finest and numerous exhausting work."

He known as that interval "the turning level of my profession," when he "hit numerous balls," which is not something he spent a lot of time on in the past. "I'm not a man who hits numerous balls at coaching however I wanted to do it. I wanted to spend money on my batting once more," he said.

Klaasen told the host broadcaster he believed the venue and the people there had looked after him and in the press conference, also credited his close circle with keeping him going, though not always in the way you might imagine.

"I've bought numerous mates who're fairly exhausting on me. It retains me humble," he said. "When you screw up, they let about it, so you need to put within the exhausting work however whenever you do nicely, they congratulate you and have a drink with you and in addition have fun with you."

We all know what they had been doing on Friday night time.

Firdose Moonda is ESPNcricinfo's correspondent for South Africa and ladies's cricket