Batsman, captain, fan - Warner
M48: SRH vs KXIP – Killer Miller`s brilliance in last over thriller 4:19 5,676 Views It was the day of the Davids as two left-handers brought the Rajiv Gandhi International cricket stadium alive with their clean striking of the ball. Earlier in the night, before David Miller walked out to bat it was David Warner who got everyone running for cover with his fluent 52-ball 81. 185 was what Sunrisers scored at the end of the innings and the Kings XI Punjab chase looked ordinary.
They lost wickets in a cluster, failed to stitch batting partnerships and at the end of the day it looked like a cake walk for the men in orange at home. Until, Miller pushed the accelerator and kept whacking the ball to all parts of the ground with relative ease. Suddenly there were some nerves in the Sunrisers camp as Miller looked like finding his sweet spot each time the ball hit his bat.
He almost chased down even when he was staring down the barrel with 28 to get off the final over of the match. He scored 22 of those falling short of the target by 6 runs as the Sunrisers finally heaved a sigh of relief. Relief was there in the eyes of Miller as well as he walked back to the dressing room receiving appreciation from the opposition and fellow teammates who had witnessed a quality knock at the end of the day.
Despite the loss, Miller was sporting enough to don a smile and have a quick chat with iplt20.com. We got Killer Miller talking about his best knock in this year’s IPL and his national teammate AB de Villiers.
P.S. He wants to add a few of AB’s skills in his batting armory.
Read on to find out what they are. An unbeaten 89 from just 44 balls; has to be your best knock this season?Absolutely! This is my best knock so far this year in the IPL. I haven’t really had a cracker of a season to be honest.
I have just been there and thereabouts with a few good starts. I am actually feeling really good about my batting at the moment. I knew just hanging in there would always help and one big knock will always be round the corner.
I produced one tonight and it feels really nice.Just a bit too late in the tournament but this knock should augur you well confidence per say isn’t it?I will take a lot of confidence from this knock. It will give me a lot of self belief.
Every single time you walk on the field there is a lot of expectations being a cricketer. It is all about performing as well as you can and when you do perform you have to make sure you enjoy that and take a lot of confidence from it into the next innings. I haven’t had an amazing IPL but I have definitely been in the hunt.
I have been feeling good but I have just been unfortunate with a few dismissals and poor shot selections. You are only as good as your last knock and this game is amazing because one day you can score big runs and the other day hit a low. You have to learn to take the ups and downs in a good stride.
57 required from the last three overs, the way you were striking the ball, it almost looked like you would get those runs. If I can be critical of myself, maybe I missed out on a low full toss but other than that I felt really good striking it cleanly. I was pretty fortunate to get a couple of full tosses in the last over as well.
But at the end it was too many to get in the last two overs. The pitch was a little bit up and down and considering that, credit to Moises Henriques who bowled really well in the middle overs.Last year you had Virender Sehwag and Manan Vohra giving you good starts, but this year the Kings XI haven’t really settled in with a stable opening pair or a batting combination with a lot of changing going on.
Do you think not getting good starts is one of the reasons for Kings XI’s failure this season?Definitely. To be honest I don’t have an opinion if chopping and changing is right or wrong. Personally I think changing the team a lot of times could have an effect on the players.
But, we do have a lot of depth in the squad and trying a few options upfront was probably a good thing to do. Last year we did get off to a lot better starts and this year we haven’t quite kicked off with consistent starts. But such is the nature of T20 and it can happen.
Last year we were consistent and things went our way but this year we haven’t clicked. There are certain things that happened last year which was great but those little things have unfortunately failed to happen this time around. How has the team managed to keep the energy levels up despite a string of losses? I think we have been really up for every single game.
Everyone has been really geared up in the games we have played so far. It is a privilege to be in this competition. As individuals we don’t need any motivation other than being a part of this competition.
I don’t think it is a lack of trying but we haven’t quite performed.On a lighter note, you sure would have watched the AB de Villiers show yesterday. You know him from close quarters, is there anything from his book of batting that you would want to imbibe in your game?I think just the shots that he plays are unbelievable.
He plays everywhere around the wicket. A lot of times people may criticize the way he plays because it is unbelievable shots being hit all round the park and people don’t expect someone to play that kind of shots. The way that he commits himself to every shot is something that I would like to take on board in my batting.
He commits a hundred percent to whatever he does and he believes that he can do it. He is the best in the world. He is very special.
Not many people can do what he does. The freedom, the commitment he shows towards his shots and the enjoyment factor when he plays out there is something that I would love to take from him. .
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