The Delhi Capitals versus Gujarat Titans clash at the Arun Jaitley Stadium on Wednesday, April 8, turned out to be a humdinger, with the latter winning by just one run. David Miller was standing in the way of the Titans’ win, but in the end, he couldn’t take the Capitals over the line.
Miller refused to take a single and give the strike to Kuldeep Yadav when two runs were required off the last two balls. On the last ball, bowled by Prasidh Krishna, Miller tried to go for a pull shot but connected with thin air. Kuldeep scampered towards the striker’s end to sneak in a bye. However, Jos Buttler collected the ball on the bounce and knocked the stumps down with an accurate throw to find the Indian spinner short of his crease.
Harbhajan Singh slammed David Miller for his decision-making, as he mentioned that the Titans would have thanked the South African batter, and his actions felt as if he was still representing the franchise he played for from 2022 to 2024. The cricketer-turned-commentator opined that taking the single off the penultimate ball would have been a better idea.
“He (David Miller) tried to play the hero and said no, I’ll hit two runs on the last ball. What happened after that? The last ball ended up being a dot ball, Kuldeep got run out, and the match they were set to win was lost. Gujarat Titans said, thank you very much, David Miller, because what you did made it feel like you are still part of GT.”
Harbhajan said that Kuldeep has a decent amount of batting experience and can hold his own with the willow under pressure. The former added that had Miller trusted his partner and given strike, even if Kuldeep had failed to take his team home, the match would have at least rolled into the Super Over.
“He’s (Kuldeep Yadav) not so inexperienced in batting that he can’t handle it. He can connect with the ball reasonably well. David Miller just needed to trust his partner a little. I think if they had taken a run on the fifth ball, then on the sixth ball, even if Kuldeep got out, there would still have been a chance. The Capitals had a chance. If it went to a Super Over, they would have gotten another opportunity. But they didn’t give themselves any chance.”
We’ve rarely seen David Miller finish matches: Harbhajan
While Harbhajan called Miller an excellent player, he said that the southpaw hasn’t finished too many matches for the teams he plays for of late. The former Indian spinner also mentioned that Kuldeep is not someone who can’t bat.
Ex-IND spinner slams Miller after thrilling end to DC v GT
“From my understanding, it’s beyond me how this is even possible. What could have been going through his mind? It’s not that Kuldeep doesn’t know how to bat. But when pressure situations come, I’ve seen David Miller, and maybe it’s just his luck. He’s an excellent player, a very strong player. But I think the difference between a strong player and a great player is this: a great player finishes the match. And we’ve rarely seen David Miller finish matches. When we did see him do it, he helped Gujarat Titans win title. But today he was very sad because he knew a mistake had been made. That mistake cost them two points.”
