MILLER PROVIDES BLUEPRINT TO NEUTRALISE NORTJE’S EXPRESS PACE

David Miller and Anrich Nortje may be Proteas teammates, but they have enjoyed some exciting head-to-head battles in both the Betway SA20 and the Indian Premier League before. 

Miller, of course, leads the Paarl Royals in the Betway SA20 while Nortje turns out for the Pretoria Capitals. 

On Tuesday, at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi, the pair were once again pitted against each other in the IPL. 

They had flown together to India from South Africa after playing for the Proteas at the Wanderers on Sunday, but were immediately thrust into action by their respective Gujarat Titans (Miller) and Delhi Capitals (Nortje) teams. 

Fellow Betway SA20 stars Rashid Khan (3/31) and Alzarri Joseph (2/29) initially restricted the Capitals to just 162/8 in their batting effort. 

However, the Capitals then fought back strongly through Nortje, who was bursting through on a lively Delhi pitch by removing both Titans openers Wriddhiman Saha and Shubman Gill with a couple of rasping deliveries that touched 148 km/h. 

Nortje had certainly given his team a chance of defending their paltry total. 

But that’s when Miller’s experience came to the fore.

The powerful left-hander initially imparted some much-needed advice to some of the younger Titans batting line-up such as Sai Sudharsan (69 not out) on how to handle Nortje’s express pace on a tricky surface before finishing the job himself with an undefeated 31 off just 16 balls (2×4, 2×6) to comfortably take the defending IPL champions home by six wickets. 

“It was staying a bit low, and with the express pace of Nortje, you naturally want to hang back, but it’s really important to get on the front foot, playing forward, especially for that ball that is squatting,” Miller explained.

“Those kinds of things we were chatting about, it was a good enough wicket nonetheless. There weren’t too many other things to worry about, as long as you kept coming forward, and on the front foot, you seemed to be fine.”