Guwahati: Star South African batsman David Miller firmly believes that the series loss against India will not make his team weak ahead of the upcoming T20 World Cup. He referred to Australia’s title win last season, which was struggling to do consistently well ahead of the prestigious tournament. South Africa’s top-order batsmen struggled hard even as their bowlers failed to find their way in the second T20 on Sunday as India took a 2-0 series lead with a 16-run win here.
Miller said the defeat would not hurt him much as Australia too had struggled a lot in 2021 but eventually became world champions. Australia entered the World Cup after losing five consecutive series in the T20 format. “There have been many examples in the past, one of which is Australia that they weren’t doing very well before the World Cup and then they went on to become world champions,” Miller said at a post-match press conference. So I don’t think there is a need to worry too much about it.”
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“We have built a very good team in the last one and a half years. Together we do very well. We have good partnerships, we won a lot of series last year.” “It was definitely disappointing to lose the series tonight but we have competed really well in the past but still losing the series is disappointing,” said the attacking batsman. The Temba Bavuma-led side were given a tight target of 238 but the captain failed to open the account for the second successive match while Riley Roseau was also dismissed for naught.
However, Miller played an excellent innings of 106 not out off 47 balls and shared an unbroken 174 runs for the fourth wicket with Quinton de Kock (69 not out off 48 balls) to keep the match close. Miller said, “We didn’t bat well in the last match. We didn’t have a good start in this match as well but we managed to build a very good partnership and the match was very competitive in the end.” Miller, however, took a softer approach towards his bowlers.
“More than 400 runs were scored in the match, I don’t want to be too harsh on the bowlers but I think at times we didn’t execute the plan properly,” he said. Miller said, “He did really well in the last game. We can still improve in some departments before the World Cup, we still have time.” Referring to the packed Barsapara Stadium, Miller said, “India had the support of the spectators and it is not easy to come here as an opponent to play in Indian conditions. They make a lot of noise. You can also use it to your advantage. Just enjoy the atmosphere. You don’t get an atmosphere like this anywhere in the world.”
The match was interrupted twice – first when a snake entered the ground and then a floodlight went off during South Africa’s innings. But Miller said it gave him a good break. “These things are out of our control and it gave us time to look into what really happened in the power play. This gave us some time to chat. And then there was the snake too. I mean there was a lot going on today.” (agency)