The former South Africa coach, Mark Boucher, believes that their middle order batter, David Miller, hardly had any clue against the Indian spinners during the opening game of the four-match T20I series against India at the Kingsmead in Durban. The former wicket-keeper also pointed out the lack of power by the home batters in the fixture.
David Miller is having a terrible time against this opponent in the shortest format. It was his dismissal, thanks to the incredible catch of Suryakumar Yadav, which pushed India to end their 11-year drought of winning an ICC tournament during the final of the 2024 T20 World Cup in the West Indies and United States of America.
The chase of 203 runs was never on track for the Proteas, who lost three wickets inside the first six overs. David Miller and Heinrich Klassen, who were retained for the highest price of INR 23 crore in the Indian Premier League 2025, struggled to nail the boundaries in the middle overs.
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The pair, for the fourth wicket, added 42 runs in 37 legal deliveries. David Miller, who is known for his incredible power hitting, could drill 18 runs in 22 balls with the help of one boundary and as many as six. He wasn’t retained by his franchise, Gujarat Titans, before the mega auction of the tournament, and this series will be vital for him to put his name for a huge money from the paddle war.
The Natal-born has vast T20 experience with 10820 runs in 460 innings at a strike rate of over 137, thanks to his four centuries and 49 half-centuries at a best score of unbeaten 120 runs.
In the last edition of the IPL, he was part of nine encounters where he smacked 210 runs at an average of 35 and a strike rate of 151.20, thanks to the best score of 55.
Mark Boucher points out the weakness of David Miller against spinners
However, the former head coach of the Mumbai Indians, Mark Boucher, felt that the batter looked clueless against the spinners. Soon after the dismissal of Klassen, David Miller also returned to the dressing room in the same over to Varun Chakaravarthy.
The former wicket-keeper batter recalled the 11th over, bowled by the leg-spinner Ravi Bishnoi, where the veteran played five successive dots before taking a single. That eventually increased the pressure on the batter before he perished.
“David Miller wasn’t picking a thing at all. I mean, there’s one over there where I think he missed four out of the six deliveries he faced. So yeah, he was bowled well tonight, and it just goes to show two quality spinners. There was something there for the bowlers on that wicket. Something that South African bowlers could not exploit.” Boucher claimed during the discussion on Jio Cinema.
David Miller has a strike rate of 128 against the leg-spinner in T20Is, besides being dismissed seven times in 31 innings. When it comes to the off-spinners, the 35-year-old could smash at a strike rate of only 116.4, getting dismissed eight times in 56 innings.
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The three Indian spinners ended with a combined figure of 6/61 in nine overs at an economy of under seven. Boucher praised the performance of Bishnoi in the first T20I game.
“I was watching a couple of his (Ravi Bishnoi) balls come out a little bit different, and I think what he did well tonight, especially in the dark, is (that) he changed the seam up. Sometimes, you look at the ball, especially as a wicket-keeper as well. You look at the ball and see if you can see it spinning in different ways. But he muddled his seam up very nicely.” Mark Boucher concluded.
