Batsman David Miller has reflected on South Africa’s inability to win the T20 World Cup final against Indian in the West Indies earlier this year.
Pursuing a 177-run target, the Proteas reached 151 for four in 16 overs before slipping to 169 for eight in 20. Miller hit 21 off 17 deliveries – and was dismissed in the penultimate over.
“Frustration, disappointment, failure, all these negative things come into your head. I watch a lot of different sports and they always talk about the moment to win the game. And I suppose that was the moment to win the game,” Miller told ESPNcricinfo this week.
“And it wasn’t to be for me. I took it pretty hard. I felt like I had let the country down, I had let myself and my team-mates down. It’s quite a difficult moment to unwrap. It was a very hollow feeling.
“There’s many other people, sportsmen that have had really tough moments to try and get over and I’m not the only person that it’s ever happened to.”
Miller recently became the sixth cricketer to play 500 professional T20 fixtures. The others are West Indians Dwayne Bravo, Kieron Pollard, Sunil Narine and Andre Russell – and Pakistani Shoaib Malik.
Among the T20 franchises Miller has played for are the Barbados Royals in the Caribbean Premier League, Chittagong Kings in the Bangladesh Premier League, Hobart Hurricanes in Australia’s Big Bash League, Los Angeles Knight Riders in Major League Cricket in the United States of America, Rajasthan Royals in the Indian Premier League, Multan Sultans in the Pakistan Super League and Jaffna Kings in the Lanka Premier League.
“The mindset of cricketers has changed massively, obviously due to T20 and just the skill level of everyone coming through. The youngsters now have the confidence to just play their game freely,” added Miller.
“That’s probably been the big change. Back in the day they always had power-hitters, but now it’s more a mindset of we all are buying into what we are doing here. It allows players to play a lot more freely.”