T20 WC: It's great that David came good for us at right time, says Temba Bavuma
Oct 30, 2021
Sharjah [UAE], October 30 : South Africa skipper Temba Bavuma expressed his happiness at David Miller's last over heroics against Sri Lanka in the ongoing ICC Men's T20 World Cup here at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium on Saturday.
With this win, South Africa claimed their second victory of the Super 12 stage in the T20 World Cup. Miller smashed two sixes in the 20th over to take South Africa home in a nail-biting thriller. He remained unbeaten at 23 runs off 13 balls. Miller put Wanindu Hasaranga's hat-trick in vain as the spinner tried his best to dismantle the chase of South Africa in the death overs.
"It's hard to keep everything at the back of my mind, and we had a job to do. We took it deep and it was a good thing that we managed to get over the line. David hasn't done that for us in a while, and it's great that he came good at the right time," said the South African skipper.
"Shamsi is a good player for us, he's been effective all over the world in this format and he's been doing this for quite a while now. I took on the responsibility to soak the pressure. The shot was on, but I am a bit annoyed that I couldn't execute it well enough," he added.
Chasing 143, South Africa had a horror start as Dushmantha Chameera struck twice in the fourth over to send back both South Africa openers and put them on the back-foot. Rassie van der Dussen was then run out by Dasun Shanaka in the eighth over as Proteas came under a lot of pressure.
The bowlers then piled on the pressure as South Africa were 62/3 in 10 overs, with Temba Bavuma and Aiden Markram at the crease.
Markram, T Bavuma, and D Pretorius were victims of Hasaranga in the second half of the innings as he gave hope to the Asian team but Miller had other plans in his mind as he saved his best for the last.
South Africa will now be facing Bangladesh for their T20 men's World Cup clash on Tuesday in Dubai while Sri Lanka will be going against England on Monday in Sharjah.
