Loyalties change and this is the beauty of IPL! David Miller on Tuesday was the star for Gujarat Titans as his 38-ball 68* took his side over the line against Rajasthan Royals at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata. Miller’s heroics ensured Gujarat sail smoothly into the final.
South African batter David Miller, who played a total of 28 games in the last five editions of the Indian Premier League (IPL) has changed his career around with his best-ever season yet in the cash-rich league in the 2022 edition with the new franchise Gujarat Titans (GT). Miller took the Titans to the final in their debut season of the IPL after playing an exceptional knock of 68* off just 38 balls against his former team Rajasthan Royals (RR) in the first qualifier.
In Kolkata toss always becomes a crucial factor as the wicket settles down in the second innings and the team batting first has to get 20 runs over par to feel safe. Even though RR recovered well, in the end, to get to a score of 189 in the first innings owing to Jos Buttler’s 89 off 56 following skipper Sanju Samson’s blitz (47 off 26), however, Titans weren’t out of it.
Miller joined skipper Hardik Pandya in the middle when GT still required more than 100 runs. Hardik was the aggressor in the partnership initially before Miller took the centre stage and once he got a couple of shots from the middle, it was a matter of time before “if it’s in the V, it’s in the tree and if it’s in the arc, it’s out of the park” happened.
These were the words from Miller after he smashed a total of 4 sixes and a four in the last 8 balls he faced as he remained unbeaten on 68 striking at 178.9 while forcing his former team to go through the second qualifier to have an opportunity to meet them again in the final.
David Miller tweeted said ‘sorry’ to his former team, Rajasthan Royals
Till last season, Miller was with the Royals and now he has come back to haunt them. To rub salt to the wound, Miller tweeted after the win and tweeted,
“Sorry #RoyalsFamily 🤷♂️”
Sorry #RoyalsFamily 🤷♂️
— David Miller (@DavidMillerSA12) May 24, 2022
In response, Royals came up with a meme that said,
“Dushman na kare dost ne voh kaam kiya hai (even an enemy won’t do what a friend has done).”
— Rajasthan Royals (@rajasthanroyals) May 24, 2022
This has been Miller’s best season and what has changed, if you ask him, he said opportunity. The left-hander, who went unsold in the first round of mega auction, has played all 15 games for the Titans this season, the number of games he didn’t play for the Royals in a couple of seasons he was with them in 2020 and 2021.