Brain over brawn - Ambati Rayudu

More often than not, David Miller has taken guard in the Pepsi IPL 2015 when the Kings XI Punjab have been pushed on to the back-foot. In the match against the Delhi Daredevils on May 1, the scene was not very different. KXIP were tottering at 10 for three when the South African came to the crease and strove to keep the innings from falling apart.

It wasn’t easy, it isn’t easy, Miller confessed later. While he fought it out in the middle during his 41-ball 42, the only ally he found was in the gutsy Axar Patel. The pair’s 57-run partnership kept the team from being bowled out.

While reflecting on the loss to DD at the Ferozeshah Kotla, Miller also spoke about the team’s performance and his own batting. While he acknowledged the hosts bowling effort, the middle-order batsman also discussed batting under trying circumstances after the top-order collapses. Excerpts from the interview: Was it difficult to bat out there?It was.

It was pretty tough; the wicket was a little bit up and down so it wasn’t easy. A lot of the balls were keeping low and some were carrying and had a good bounce in it; so it wasn’t easy. Obviously we didn’t do well in the first six overs; I don’t think the dismissals were (because of) reckless shots at all.

It was just one of those things (when) we just managed to get ourselves in trouble. The way it’s going at the moment, nothing quite went our way. So it wasn’t too easy to bat out there but they made it look very easy.

You have been coming in to bat mostly in pressure situations. How do you cope with the pressure?It’s not easy. In the last six-seven games we haven’t batted well in the first six overs.

So the middle-order has been under pressure to at least get the team to a decent total. But that’s what we are there for, to try and get to a good total whether we are in trouble or we are doing well. We just try and stabilise things and just push from there.

It hasn’t been the greatest - the last couple of games. There are still six games left (in the league phase), so we can turn it around. We have to stay positive.

What was your advice to Axar Patel while building the partnership to stabilise the innings?My advice was just to watch the ball closely and keep things simple. And it (ball) wasn’t bouncing too well, so just to try and cover the stumps with the body and not get bowled. So that was the plan to try and get in line and show good body language as much as we can.

You seemed to try and keep the strike at the time. How tough was it in the middle?No, not really. Axar was batting really well actually, he was quite positive so it made things easier for me.

I just thought I was the last recognised batsman out there so it was to just try to stabilise things and try and take it deep in to the last two or three overs. Axar batted well. What goes on in your mind when you bat with the lower-order?It is quite difficult.

In Tweny20 everything happens very quickly. So there is not really too much time to think about whether you would like to keep the strike and stuff like that. So you just try and play according to the situation as best as you can.

Your thoughts on DD’s performance tonightI think they didn’t bowl too many bad balls in the first six overs so that was the big thing. That put us under a lot of pressure and things just snowballed for us into the negative. You play Mumbai Indians next at Mohali.

What learnings would you take from this moving forward?To just go out and play with freedom and have a bit of fun and definitely come out with a good win. .

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