The Delhi Capitals vs. Gujarat Titans match held on Wednesday, April 8, at the Arun Jaitley Stadium was a humdinger with the latter winning by a narrow margin of 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 started scampering to the end of the striker to get a bye. Yet, Jos Buttler caught the ball as a bouncer, and threw the stumps down with a direct hit to leave the Indian spiner without his crease.
Harbhajan Singh criticized David Miller over his decision-making process, saying that the Titans would have been grateful to the South African batter, and his actions were like he was still representing the franchise he represented between 2022 and 2024. The former cricketer turned commentator felt that he should have just been better to take the single off the penultimate ball.
“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.”
According to Harbhajan, Kuldeep can compete with the willow under duress and has a respectable amount of batting experience. The former went on to say that even if Kuldeep hadn’t won, the game would have at least gone into the Super Over if Miller had trusted his partner and given strike.
“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
Miller is a great player, according to Harbhajan, but the southpaw hasn’t recently finished many games for the teams he plays for. Additionally, the former Indian spinner stated that Kuldeep is capable of batting.
“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.”
