Senior South Africa batter David Miller said that the Delhi Capitals squad has consciously stayed away from blaming individuals and remains united in its bid to pull off a late surge into the IPL playoffs. Having endured a difficult phase marked by batting collapses and costly fielding lapses, Delhi now find themselves in a must-win situation heading into the final stretch of the league stage. DC now need to win all four remaining games in order to stay in contention for the playoffs. “We are in a position where we have spoken that it is all of us together. Win or lose, we are together,” Miller said ahead of the game against Kolkata Knight Riders.
“And there is no pointing fingers at all with what we have done. We are all in it together,” Miller added.
Stressing that the qualification equation is straightforward for the side now, he added: “The reality is we have got four games to win. So if we do that, then we are putting ourselves in a good position.” Speaking about Delhi’s recent defeats, Miller felt the team has not played poor cricket overall but has faltered in crucial moments.
“I do not think we have been playing bad cricket at all. We have been playing really good cricket, but there are just moments in the game where we have kind of let ourselves down as a team in certain areas.”
Reflecting on his own stop-start season and limited opportunities in the playing XI, Miller admitted it has been frustrating but said he understands the dynamics of the IPL.
“Not being able to play, obviously it is frustrating as a player. You always want to play every game, but such is the IPL – the structure of it with only four overseas players – the combinations become really important for the team,” he explained.
Analysing the batting failures, he pointed to wickets falling in clusters as a recurring issue.
“The games that we have not done too well, we have lost wickets in clusters – two, three, four wickets quite closely,” Miller observed.
DC’s fielding too has been poor, to say the least.
“And then there are moments here and there where we have dropped a couple of catches that potentially could have changed the outcome of the game.”
On the changing nature of T20 batting, Miller said modern-day batters are pushing boundaries with their fearless approach from ball one.
“The mindset and mentality of batters nowadays has definitely gone to another level,” he noted.
At the same time, he stressed the importance of trusting one’s own methods amid the rapidly evolving game.
“For someone like me, it is just about making sure that my skills and strengths remain really strong,” he said.
Miller also had words of praise for spinner Kuldeep Yadav, calling him a genuine match-winner despite his poor returns in recent games.
“With someone like Kuldeep, I have always played against him and I do not like facing him,” Miller said.
“He is a great character and for me it is important to have those kinds of players continually playing because he is a match-winner.”
Looking ahead to the business end of the tournament, Miller said the team’s entire focus is now on the remaining four matches.
“Whatever has happened in the last ten games, we are taking the positives from that. But the next four games are huge,” he signed off
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