"The Fight Was Incredible": GT Batter David Miller After Loss Against RCB In IPL 2024
Bengaluru : Despite the loss against Royal Challengers Bengaluru in the Indian Premier League 2024, Gujarat Titans middle-order batter David Miller that his side showed incredible fight during the clash on Saturday.
RCB managed to survive a middle-over scare of quick wickets despite an explosive partnership between skipper Faf Du Plessis and Virat Kohli to record a four-wicket win against GT in their IPL 2024 clash on Saturday at M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru.
The Faf Du Plessis-led side has jumped to the seventh place in the points table, with four wins and seven losses, giving them eight points. With the same win-loss record and points but an inferior net run rate, the Gujarat franchise is in the ninth spot.
"I think it's a tough one because, um you know this game of cricket where margins are so small and there are certain games that we potentially should have won that we did lose that. We're pretty close. And if you win those, you know, if we had one, those two games, things would have been, you know, very different would have been six from 11. Um, you know, now we are 4 from 11, so it kind of behind the eight ball," Miller said at the post-match press conference.
The South African cricketer said that the team has not been able to win the crucial moments in the ongoing 17th edition of the league.
"But I feel like the first two years we played, you know, like, we won crucial moments. And this year we've been we just haven't been able to win those crucial moments in the game and hence losing the close games," the left-hand batter added.
The southpaw said that his team lost the game because the GT were a couple of wickets down without scoring too many runs.
"To be honest, we lost the game, I feel like in the powerplay, batting and bowling. Look, I mean, we were a couple of wickets down for not too many runs while batting, and then bowling. They were on about 90 after 6 overs. So it was tough to, you know, you're not gonna really win too many games like that, by scoring 150," the 34-year-old player asserted.
In the end, Miller said that the way his side fought in the second innings was really good to see.
"I think taking the positive out of this game, I thought the fight was incredible. You know, being the position that we were with the bat managing to get to 140-150 is, you know, something on the board, and then for them to be what they were in the powerplay, extraordinary powerplay. We had to fight back. The way that we did was really good to see," the southpaw concluded.
Coming to the match, RCB elected to field first after winning the toss. GT was 19/3 at one point. Then, a 61-run partnership between Shahrukh Khan (37 in 24 balls, with five fours and a six) and David Miller (30 in 20 balls, with two fours and two sixes) helped GT make a brief comeback.
RCB kept taking regular wickets and once again reduced GT to 87/5. Then, a 44-run partnership between Rahul Tewatia (35 in 21 balls, with five fours and a six) and Rashid Khan (18 in 14 balls, with two fours and a six) took GT beyond the 100-run mark. RCB bundled out GT for 147 runs in 19.3 overs.
Yash Dayal (2/21), Vijaykumar Vyshak (2/23) and Mohammed Siraj (2/29) were among the top bowlers for RCB. Cameron Green and Karn Sharma took a wicket each.
Coming to the run chase, RCB started off brilliantly with Faf Du Plessis (64 in 23 balls, with 10 fours and three sixes) and Virat Kohli (42 in 27 balls, with two fours and four sixes) putting up a 92-run stand.
After that RCB lost its way due to a fantastic spell from Joshua Little (4/45) and Noor Ahmed (2/23). However, Dinesh Karthik (21*) and Swapnil Singh (15*) guided the team to a four-wicket win with 38 balls left.