‘Miller the Killer’ did it again when he, along with Rassie van der Dussen, pulled off a miraculous win in the first T20 against India at Delhi chasing down 211.
India bossed the game from the beginning - first putting on a mamonth 211 - and it looked more than a handy total at the break but David Miller - who was Hardik Pandya’s finisher ensured that South Africa would chase this total down too. Miller came in to bat in the ninth over at the fall of Quintons de Kock’s wicket with the score at 80.
He began slowly and was batting on just seven runs of 8 balls and he turned it around from in the 11th over of Harshal Patel when he hit a six and four and got his rhythm. The 12th over of Aksar Patel went for 19 runs but India were still in the game as Miller’s batting partner was struggling to get going at the other end.
It was in the 15th over that Shreyas Iyer spilled an easy catch and after that, it was the Rassie van der Dussen show. He clobbered Patel’s 17th over for 20 runs and the 18th over of Bhuvaneshwar Kumar went for 22 runs - turning the match on its head.
What was important throughout the south African innings was the way Miller carried Rassie and kept scoring from the other end. On a small Feroze Shah Kotla ground, scoring sixes was like a walk in the park where a total of 28 sixes were hit and India was blown away in the end with the flurry of sixes.
India would be happy that their young batters scored but must be concerned that without Jasprit Bumrah’s presence, the bowling looks toothless and any score would be chased against them. This also broke India’s 12-match winning streak in T20s and had they won this one, it would have been a world record.
- Cricket enthusiast Anis Sajan is the Vice Chairman of Danube Group
