Mohali: Despite his heroic unbeaten 89 off 44 balls, David Miller’s efforts went in vain for Kings XI Punjab as Sunrisers Hyderabad won the contest by a narrow margin on Monday. The South African southpaw said that it was his best knock of the season so far. “I haven’t really had a cracker of a season. I have just been there and thereabouts with a few good starts. I knew just hanging in there would always help and one big knock will always be round the corner,” he said while talking to iplt20.com.
Kings XI needed 57 to win off the last three overs and fell just five short eventually. Miller was modest about his knock. “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,” he said.
Miller felt that lack of good starts at the top hurt their chances this time. “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,” he added.
Miller was all praise for his South African team-mate AB de Villiers who recorded the highest score of this year’s IPL on Sunday. de Villiers struck a magnificent 133 that left everyone spellbound including Miller.
“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.
“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,” said Miller.
