Varun Chakaravarthy has been key to India dominating opposition sides with the ball over the past one and a half years or so, particularly in the ongoing T20 World Cup with the defending champions often suffering from batting collapses. However, he ended up being taken to the cleaners on Sunday in their first Super Eights clash against South Africa and India ended up being thrashed by 76 runs.
David Miller and Dewald Brevis laid into Chakaravarthy and the spinner ended up conceding a whopping 47 runs in his four overs. Miller, who scored 63 off 35 balls, said that they were looking to make sure that they make the most of any bad delivery from Chakravarthy.
“I think it’s just about really making sure that we were on it in terms of if he bowls a bad ball we got to put it away – so a little bit more intent and it wasn’t spinning too much tonight, so you can kind of trust the line,” Miller told reporters after the match.
“And once we felt that, then we felt, OK, we’ve got to take him down, because he is a threat to every team that he does play against. So it was definitely something that we did speak about,” he explained.
“It’s about making sure that you really stick to the simple things and the basics and do that really well. Like I said, my intent always has to be up, making sure that I have limited movements, when the ball is bowled, so I’m nice and still, my breathing, running hard, all those simple things. It’s cliche, but it really does, in the heat of battle, those are the things that I clutch to.”
Asked about the biggest takeaway from the win last night, Miller found it tough to hide his glee at beating the team that is widely tipped to become the first to retain the trophy. “India are beatable. India, as I mentioned, is an incredible team. But for us in a tournament like this, it’s about making sure that we do the simple things and make sure that we stay in our lane as a player and do the job and get the job done,” Miller said.
