Gujarat Titans captain Rashid Khan said that David Miller was instructed to take a swing at any delivery bowled in his slot after winning against Chennai Super Kings by three wickets. Rashid further added that the team was confident of its lower order as they have hard-hitting batters.
Gujarat Titans continued their amazing form in the IPL 2022 winning a thriller against Chennai Super Kings by three wickets. David Miller played a heroic inning in the chase of 170 runs for GT and Rashid Khan was the other batter who scripted a win for the team. They were reduced to 48/4 and a batting collapse was on the cards but Miller stayed on the crease from one end. He smashed unbeaten 94 runs from 51 balls studded with eight fours and six sixes. He was hitting the balls when they were bowled in his slot. Gt captain Rashid Khan revealed that Miller was instructed to take a swing at anything bowled in his zone.
“(When Miller walked out) We wanted to take the game deep. We knew we can get 90 in 7 overs. We told David to go for it when the ball was in his zone. We have a good lower order that can hit the ball really hard,” Rashid said in the post-match presentation.
The team was missing the services of captain Hardik Pandya today. Rashid Khan walked in to bat at no.7 and played a cameo of 40 runs from 21 balls turning the game on its head. Both of them stitched a partnership of 70 runs for the seventh wicket which was a game-changing event. The chase boiled down to the last over and Miller finished the game to help the team register a three-wicket win over the opponents. Rashid revealed that he wanted to take responsibility to score runs as the team needed two batters to score big.
“I haven’t batted in the first 5 games, that was the discussion, so I wanted to take the responsibility. We wanted two batters to score big, I just had a discussion with Miller and we tried to strike the ball hard. I needed to step up and take the responsibility, just wanted to back myself and that was the plan,” he revealed.
Earlier in the match, GT won the toss and opted to bowl first against CSK. Ruturaj Gaikwad smashed 73 runs and he along with Ambati Rayudu steered the innings after the loss of two early wickets. They were heading to a decent target but death bowling from GT bowlers restricted them to 169/5. Alzarri Joseph picked two wickets for GT while Mohammed Shami and Yash Dayal picked a single wicket each. Reflecting on the win, Rashid was leading the team in absence of Hardik Pandy and he said that it was a dream come true for him to lead a team and win in his captaincy debut.
“It’s an amazing feeling in IPL, it’s a dream come true to lead the team, and delivering that is something special,” he explained.
Miller was adjudged Man of the Match for his stunning knock. He revealed that he is working hard on fitness and also compared the knock to an innings he played for KXIP in 2013
“I have been really working hard on my fitness. It does take me back to memory lane [referring to the innings he played for KXIP], it was sort of play my game, see ball hit ball, with the rate already quite high, I wanted to express myself. It came off tonight and pretty chuffed with the innings. Getting in with the position at 16/3 gives me an opportunity to shine, doesn’t happen too often but when the ball was new it helps,” Miller stated in the post-match presentation.
