Ahmedabad: David Miller rolled back the years with exhilarating strokes, but Jasprit Bumrah’s superb initial and end act restricted South Africa to a par score of 187 for seven in the Super Eights game of the T20 World Cup Sunday.
Miller, standing on the cusp of 37, struck 63 off 35 balls and got fine support from young Dewald Brevis (45 off 29 balls) after Bumrah (315 in 4 overs) and Arshdeep Singh (228 in 4 overs) had reduced the Proteas to 20 for 3 inside the first four overs.
Bumrah, who got two wickets in his first two overs for just seven runs, took one more wicket, giving away just 8 more runs across the 17th and 19th over that he sent down.
In all, he bowled 12 dot balls, amounting to two maiden overs.
The Proteas did find themselves down in the dumps, but veteran Miller and young Brevis launched a counter-attack that was both swift and brutal.
They added 97 in just 8.2 overs, and the hallmark of their batting was the technique against spinner Varun Chakravarthy (147 in 4 overs), who was made to look pedestrian on the day.
Between the duo, they clobbered half a dozen maximums (three apiece), but just when the black-soil strip at the Motera started helping the stroke players, the duo got out.
It was Tristan Stubbs (44 not out off 24 balls), who took South Africa past the 185-run mark with a couple of huge sixes off the final two deliveries of the innings, bowled by Hardik Pandya.
With dew setting in, a total above 200 would have made the Proteas feel more confident.
The Miller-Brevis Stand
Both Miller and Brevis hit a six each off Chakravarthy within a space of a few deliveries in the same over.
The manner in which both played Chakravarthy was laudable. They read him from the hand, held their shape and with a slight back-foot trigger generated that extra split second, getting power and elevation.
However, out of Miller’s sixes, one that stood out was a flat-batted thump off Pandya, akin to a powerful forehand in tennis that landed 10 rows behind the long-on boundary.
Miller completed a 26-ball half-ton with a slashed six off Shivam Dube, whose pace-off delivery got rid of Brevis, who mistimed a cross-batted shot.
Bumrah’s first spell
When South African innings started, Bumrah was too hot to handle during his two-over opening spell. He got the dangerous Quinton de Kock with a delivery that was angled into the left-hander after pitching slightly back of length.
De Kock played all over it as the ball clipped the leg bail.
New man Ryan Rickleton got a delivery that was angled across and leaving the outside edge of his bat – a display of Bumrah’s top-notch skill-set.
Rickleton did pull Arshdeep for a six after the seamer had removed skipper Aiden Markram with a delivery that gripped the surface, and he failed to check his uppish drive, becoming a simple catch at mid-off.
A similar kind of delivery from Bumrah stopped and bounced a tad extra, hitting the upper part of Ricketon’s willow, and it lobbed up to the mid-off fielder.
