What SA know after Pakistan ODIs

“When you’re under pressure what comes out is what you practise.” - David Miller

Sunday Times

TELFORD VICE in London

DAVID Miller took a deep breath. It did little to disguise the discomfort that had seeped into his conversation with reporters at Newlands last week.

“It is quite challenging at times but as a player you’ve got to deal with something like that,” he said.

“We’ve all committed to the bigger cause. We all want to win the World Cup as a country.

“If the selectors or coach or captain want to try out different guys, you’ve got to accept their decisions.”

Miller spoke the day after South Africa had saved their best performance of the one-day series against Pakistan for the deciding match.

They won by seven wickets with 10 overs to spare, setting a record for the highest successful chase in any ODI that has ended in the peach pink perfection of a Cape Town summer sunset.

“The guys had an unbelievable series,” Miller said. “It was up and down in terms of results but we managed to get over the line.

“It was a good challenge and mentally the guys were up for it. We’ve got better in the last couple of years at doing the basics in the high-pressure games. It’s something we’ve spoken about, being more aggressive as well, and it’s paying off.

“When you’re under pressure what comes out is what you practise.”

All good. Except that Miller wasn’t part of that series-clinching XI. The best of his three innings was the 31 he scored at Kingsmead, an important factor in South Africa’s five-wicket win there but nothing special for a player who owns five centuries and a dozen 50s in ODIs.

His most recent exemplar of excellence came in Hobart in November, a shimmering 139 that bristled with 13 fours and four sixes and flew off 108 balls and helped South Africa beat Australia in another series-decider. Had that been forgotten?

“I don’t know. I hope not but all those performances go down as experience. But the next game is just as important. It’s nice to have had that but it’s come and gone.”

South Africa deployed 17 players in the five ODIs against Pakistan. Only Wiaan Mulder and Dane Paterson played just one game. Six were involved in all five, notably Rassie van der Dussen — who had his first taste of international cricket and took to it like magnet to a fridge, scoring the most runs for South Africa and leading the averages on both sides.

If Miller’s nervous about being able to keep his hand in in the midst of all that, you can understand why.

But South Africa’s batting wasn’t always convincing. At St George’s Park they mustered a middling 266 despite leaving eight wickets standing, and they were bowled out for 164 at the Wanderers.

Miller played in both of those games but he remains solidly part of the equation for keeping South Africa steady amid the swings and roundabouts of ODI innings.

Less so Andile Phehlukwayo, who still hasn’t convinced the suits and the tracksuits that he is South Africa’s best allrounder — despite scoring an unbeaten 69 at Kingsmead and finishing as the series’ leading wicket-taker at under six to the over.

He’s only 22 and he isn’t as consistent as the unimaginative prefer their No. 7s to be. But, as Dané van Niekerk, sat next to Miller at Newlands said: “With youth and inexperience you get brave cricket, and that’s what we want.”

Phehlukwayo is the best man for this job. Give it to him already.