Picture Credit: Instagram/IPL
South Africa batter David Miller celebrated his 33rd birthday one day after helping the Proteas pull off an incredible chase against India in the first T20I of the five-match series on Thursday at Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi.
The left-handed batter smashed 64 runs in 31 balls, helping Proteas register a seven-wicket victory with five balls to spare. But today Miller's IPL team captain, Hardik Pandya, wished the South African player a very happy birthday. Pandya posted a picture along with Miller on his Instagram story and wrote: "Happy birthday my Millie but ipl is over.
“You need two players playing a part while chasing,” Miller
Addressing his performance, Miller talked about how he and Rassie van der Dussen, who scored 75*, worked together to take South Africa over the finish line. He said, “Obviously a lot of hard work has gone in over the last few years understanding my game a lot better.”
“You need two players playing a part while chasing. Rassie played phenomenally well at the back end with some big overs. Chuffed with the result. Just try and hang in there was the chat (with Rassie)”, he added.
“David's such a good player, he pulled me through that little patch,” van der Dussen
Similarly, Rassie van der Dussen also praised Miller for his knock and thanked him for scoring quickly when he wasn’t able to score at a faster rate. He said, “Pretty good. We had a good week of preparation in these conditions, bit sticky there in the middle but David's such a good player, he pulled me through that little patch. We knew if we were there till the end then we would win it.”
“I always knew I was just two boundaries away, it was not because of lack of intent, I was clear in my mind what I wanted to do but it didn't come off, you need to be mentally tough through that patch and not give it away when you take 30 balls your team expects you to do something special”, he added.