We were in the game whole time: Miller

A brilliant innings from David Miller (80*) took the Kings XI to a thrilling seven-wicket win over the depleted Pune Warriors side. Also, Manpreet Singh anchored the innings beautifully and batted right through and finished with the score of 77*. With this win, Miller said that they were in the game whole time.

“Going into Twenty20 innings, I just look to get myself in over the first five to ten balls,” explained Miller. “I wasn’t quite striking them nicely through some periods of the innings, but a few came off so it was really cool.

“We were under pressure in the first couple of overs with two down but Mandy (Mandeep) really batted well,” added Miller, referring to Punjab’s early stutter when they were 5 for 2 in the second over. “I remember looking at the scoreboard when we needed 96 with 54 balls to go and that’s when I realised it was 10.5 per over and Mandy kept telling me, we just need a boundary an over. Which was spot on. I really believe that we were in the game the whole time to be honest.”

Adam Gilchrist was also in praise of Miller. “I made the comment just before the last over that he’s watched a lot of IPL cricket over the last three seasons without having had much of an opportunity,” said Gilchrist of Miller. “He deserved everything that came his way tonight. He’s worked hard, been patient and took his opportunity tonight.”

The only point of concern for Kings XI Punjab was Gilchrist’s lack of form. He hasn’t played cricket for a year and that could be the reason behind his dismal performance. Gilchrist has scored only 61 runs out of six matches so far.

“I haven’t scored the runs that I would have hoped. So I’ll come under scrutiny there,” admitted Gilchrist. “If we think we can get a better player, absolutely. No one’s necessarily always safe and the good thing is we’ve got some options there.

“It might have been more productive for me to stay in bed all day,” quipped Gilchrist. “But the great thing is – I’ve always said it and I think most cricketers would agree – you’ll always take a failure in a winning team than a 100 in a losing team. That’s the great thing at the end of the day. It’s a team sport and I can sit here and enjoy a team victory.”

Gilchrist also said that it was a difficult ground to defend runs, with a short boundary on one side. “I guess about 14-15 over mark, they bowled a couple of slightly tighter overs and it looked like it might have been going back their way but it’s just such a difficult ground to defend on,” said Gilchrist. “If you’ve got a short boundary on one side and big one the other, the obvious thing says bowl and make them hit to the big side, but there’s such vast open spaces there, it’s hard to protect. And then knowing the power of David’s game and the touch of Mandeep, I thought it was a good blend out there. And Mandeep coming back for that second in the last over – he was prepared to sacrifice his wicket to get him back on strike – it was really great cricket awareness.”