{"id":595082,"date":"2026-04-09T06:35:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T06:35:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/595082\/"},"modified":"2026-04-09T06:35:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T06:35:08","slug":"david-miller-and-the-single-that-wasnt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/595082\/","title":{"rendered":"David Miller and the single that wasn’t"},"content":{"rendered":"

Why didn’t David Miller<\/a> take that single off the penultimate ball?<\/p>\n

That’s the question every Delhi Capitals<\/a> fan is asking after their one-run defeat<\/a> to Gujarat Titans<\/a> at the Arun Jaitley Stadium. But before getting there, let’s rewind.<\/p>\n

It’s the 13th over of the chase and Miller is wringing his left hand. He has just pulled Prasidh Krishna for a one-bounce four to deep midwicket but has also aggravated an earlier injury. He had received medical attention just before the over, and now the pain is back. By the end of the over, Miller realises he cannot continue and retires hurt on 12 off ten balls.<\/p>\n

Chasing 211, DC need 81 runs from seven overs. An asking rate of 11.57 is challenging but very much gettable in this Impact Player era of the IPL<\/a>. They also have seven wickets in hand and KL Rahul<\/a> is batting fluently on 69 off 37 balls.<\/p>\n

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So, are they the favourites? It’s not easy to say but whatever their chances are, 3.4 overs later, they have taken a hit. Rashid Khan has removed Axar Patel and Sai Sudharsan’s direct hit has sent back Tristan Stubbs.<\/p>\n

In walks Miller to resume his innings. But two balls later, Rahul falls to Mohammed Siraj. With 45 needed from three overs and only four wickets left, DC are clearly not the favourites.<\/p>\n

Miller, though, is still fighting it out in the middle. He swats Kagiso Rabada over extra cover to help bring the equation down to 36 required from 12 deliveries.<\/p>\n

Then comes the 19th over and Miller changes the complexion of the game with his brutal hitting.<\/p>\n

After starting with a wide, Siraj bowls a short ball; Miller pulls it into the stands beyond deep midwicket. The next ball is full, just outside off, and in the slot for Miller. He muscles it so hard that it hits the deep-extra-cover boundary cushion almost on the full.<\/p>\n

The third delivery from Siraj has hit-me written all over it: a genuine half-volley right under the batter’s nose. Miller brings out the no-look shot and dispatches it over the bowler’s head for a six. Later in the over, Vipraj Nigam also picks up a boundary.<\/p>\n

David Miller retired hurt after the 13th over\u00a0BCCI<\/p>\n

That leaves Prasidh with an unenviable task of defending 12 in the final over. He is also handicapped by the slow-over-rate penalty – GT can have only four fielders outside the 30-yard circle.<\/p>\n

The only relief for Prasidh is that it’s Nigam on strike. He lifts the first ball over mid-off for four but holes out on the next, bringing Kuldeep Yadav to the crease.<\/p>\n

GT know Miller wants the strike back and will try to sneak in a bye if Kuldeep fails to connect. So Buttler takes his right glove off, ready to have a shy at the stumps if the batters go for a bye. But Kuldeep dabs the ball to deep third for an easy single.<\/p>\n

With eight required from three balls, it’s anyone’s game. But Miller has reason to believe he can pull it off. In Qualifier 1 of IPL 2022<\/a>, with 16 needed from the final over, Miller had smashed Prasidh for three sixes off the first three balls for a famous win.<\/p>\n

Probably both protagonists had that game on their minds, even though a lot has changed since then. Miller was with GT back then; now he is plotting a similar heist against them. Prasidh was with Rajasthan Royals; now he is GT’s designated death bowler.<\/p>\n

What hasn’t changed is that death bowling remains one of the toughest tasks in T20 cricket. In IPL 2025, Prasidh had an economy rate of 11.06 in this phase. Among the 14 bowlers who bowled at least ten overs at the death, his economy rate was fourth from the bottom.<\/p>\n

Here, with eight needed from three, Prasidh fails to nail his yorker from around the wicket. Miller duly launches this pitched-up delivery for a monstrous 106-metre six, brining DC dugout on its feet and leaving the GT camp wondering what to do next.<\/p>\n

With two needed from two balls, Miller and Kuldeep have a long discussion in the middle. You can guess what they are debating: if a single is on offer on the fifth ball, should they go for it? Doing so would level the scores. While it would bring Kuldeep on strike for the final delivery, DC would not lose in regular time. At worst, the match would go into a Super Over.<\/p>\n

David Miller was distraught after Delhi Capitals’ defeat\u00a0BCCI<\/p>\n

If they do not take the single, Miller would remain on strike and could try to win it on the last ball. But there is also a risk of losing the game.<\/p>\n

We know what they decide.<\/p>\n

Prasidh bowls a short, slower ball. Miller pulls it towards deep square leg, and they don’t take the single. Given how cleanly he had been striking the ball, Miller backs himself to finish the job on the last ball.<\/p>\n

Before the final delivery, GT captain Shubman Gill has a lengthy chat with Prasidh. After the match, Gill revealed their thought process<\/a>. “We were discussing whether to go for the yorker or the slower one. Given how the wicket was playing, we decided the slower one would be difficult to hit for a boundary.”<\/p>\n

Prasidh goes with the slower bouncer, just outside off. Miller swings, and misses. This time, there’s no choice – they have to run. For some reason, Buttler has both gloves on but he manages to hit the stumps direct with an underarm throw. Kuldeep, despite a desperate dive, is short of his ground. How short? There’s no need for the third umpire. Even DC head coach Hemang Badani raises his finger from the dugout.<\/p>\n

The batters in the middle, though, opt for the DRS, hoping for a wide on height. It is not. Miller is 1.87 metres tall. The ball passed the popping crease at 1.75 metres.<\/p>\n

In T20 cricket, every ball is an event. When you lose by one run, you can replay at least a dozen moments and wonder “what if”. But at that time, you do not know it would come down to such fine margins. When Miller decided not to take the single on 19.5, he knew exactly what he was getting into. He backed himself but could not pull it off, leaving every DC fan with the painful question: why did he not take that single?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Why didn’t David Miller take that single off the penultimate ball? That’s the question every Delhi Capitals fan…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":595083,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,740,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-595082","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cricket","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-cricket","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/595082","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=595082"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/595082\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/595083"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=595082"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=595082"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=595082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}