David Miller's got the finishing touch

In David Miller's 31-ball 64 not out against India in the first T20I on Thursday night, he faced just nine balls of spin. Each of those was bowled by left-arm spinner Axar Patel, the ball turning into the left-handed batter's hitting arc. Not surprisingly, 21 runs came off the nine deliveries, the last three yielding four, six and six. Yuzvendra Chahal, who has just had his best IPL season with 27 scalps, didn't even get a crack at Miller. His first two overs had been expensive alright – costing 22 runs – but for someone of his wicket-taking ability to just bowl 2.1 overs seemed to be an oversight. After bowling the eighth over of the innings – his second of the night – he returned only to bowl the final over when South Africa were all but home with just four runs needed.

That skipper Rishabh Pant didn't call on Chahal from the ninth to the nineteenth over is testament, though, to the fear that Miller currently instills in the opposition. At the Feroz Shah Kotla, the small boundary dimensions and the better batting conditions as the evening wore on perhaps meant Pant was wary of Chahal travelling the distance against the hard-hitting 33-year-old.

It essentially underlines the substantial improvement that Miller's game has seen against spin. While dispatching pace bowlers beyond the boundary has always been his forte, he could often be tied down by the spinners. A deep dive into his T20 numbers for South Africa as well as in the Indian Premier League (IPL) bears this out.

In 84 T20I innings, his strike rate against the pace bowlers is an imposing 152.68. The corresponding number against spin drops considerably to 125.76. His six-hitting percentage also falls from 7.2 to 5.27.

Before 2022, his most productive IPL season was in 2014 when he racked up 446 runs in 16 games at an average of 44.6 and strike rate of 149.16. Against spin, though, he was still striking below 140. This year, when he played a leading role in Gujarat Titans' IPL triumph with an aggregate of 481 runs, his strike rate against spinners was 145.07, marginally better than his overall strike rate of 142.73 for the season. And he was dismissed only twice by them in 14 innings, resulting in an average of 103.

Miller's boundaries against Axar on Thursday illustrated the wider range of shots now in his locker against spin. When Axar pitched the ball short and wide outside off-stump, Miller slashed it to the left of the deep point fielder for four. When the ball was tossed up invitingly further away from off-stump, Miller used his feet to dance down the track and send the ball over long-off. And when Axar bowled short at the stumps – the most hittable delivery of the lot – Miller made no mistake in pulling the ball for six to deep midwicket. While Miller's hitting zone was largely confined to the region between long-on and deep square-leg earlier, he seems to have become equally adept at finding boundary options on the off-side.

"We will have to plan something for Miller. If he gets going, it is really hard to stop him. He makes it easier for the batter at the other end also. We bowled outside off-stump as well, but he turned those balls also into sixes," India opener Ishan Kishan said after their seven-wicket loss on Thursday.

By playing in the manner that he did, Miller ensured that Rassie van der Dussen did not have to panic. Having come together at the fall of the third wicket in the ninth over in pursuit of a target of 212, van der Dussen was on 30 off 32 balls at the end of the 16th over. That the right-hander did not hurt South Africa's prospects was due to Miller's exploits of course, but it also showed how much damage two set finishers can inflict at the back end.

With 64 needed going into the last five overs, the asking rate was almost 13. Van der Dussen was yet to find a higher gear, and they still got the job done with five balls to spare.

"I felt that a few shots of mine hit fielders early on. I was under a bit of pressure. But David just brought the form he's been in during the IPL. He put the bowlers under pressure right from the start and played a brilliant innings to get me through that phase," van der Dussen said.

While India are 1-0 down, they have reasons to be upbeat. Pant and Hardik Pandya, too, showed they can provide the finishing kick with a partnership of 46 runs in 18 balls that helped India's total zoom past 200. Pandya had been batting higher up the order for Gujarat Titans, but exuded instant ease while returning to his role as the designated finisher. Add an in-form Dinesh Karthik to the mix, and there is enough firepower for India to believe that they can match up to the South African finishers. Provided they find a way to dislodge Miller early.