Published: Feb 04, 2019, 02:16 PM (IST)
Edited: Feb 04, 2019, 02:16 PM (IST)
South Africa’s stand-in skipper David Miller had a tough time on the field, when despite his 29-ball 65 helping his team to a formidable 188/3 in the 2nd ODI against Pakistan, the visitors seemed on course for a win, riding on opener Babar Azam’s 58-ball 90.
However, debutant Lutho Sipamla and spinner Tabraiz Shamsi kept a check on the Pakistan run-rate as South Africa eventually won by seven runs. Allrounder Andile Phehlukwayo claimed 3/36 in his four over.
“I thought I was the worst captain on the planet, to be honest, but they were always going to go hard in the powerplay,” said Miller during the post-match presentation.
‘We didn’t start too well, but credit to our bowlers for really bringing it back. Shamsi came on and did incredibly well to bring their run rate down, and then Sipamla in his first game was absolutely incredible. I was really pleased with the two of them,’ said Miller, who led the side in the absence of the rested Faf du Plessis.
Shoaib Malik, who led the Pakistan side in place of the banned Sarfraz Ahmed, praised Miller for his knock.
‘Miller was struggling throughout the ODI series, but he’s a class player, and if he gets going we have to have two or three plans to stop him. He took the game away from us. We were in the game till the 15th over. Later we were expecting to chase about 160, but we gave away some extra runs,’ said Malik.
