Watch: David Miller pulled Pat Cummins for a six to bring up the very first hundred by a South Africa player in a men’s World Cup knockout game during the Australia-South Africa semi-final at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata today (November 16).
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After winning the toss and choosing to bat first, South Africa started the semi-final poorly, losing four wickets inside their first 12 overs. Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood enjoyed the overcast conditions and got the new ball to seam and swing, troubling the South Africa batters.
Heinrich Klaasen and Miller rescued the South Africa innings as they registered a 95-run fifth-wicket stand before Travis Head got two in two to push South Africa back again.
Miller, however, stood strong from one end, picking his battles to perfection. He hit Adam Zampa for four sixes, while showing respecting to the other bowlers who were keeping it tight.
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Miller reached his fifty off 70 balls in the 32nd over with a pull of Glenn Maxwell. For his next fifty, he took only another 44 balls, reaching the milestone in the 47th over with another pull, this time going over the boundary for six. This was the first ever century by a South Africa batter in a men’s World Cup knockout game.
He was dismissed soon after, attempting another pull shot but holing out to deep square leg in the process instead. Striking at 87.06, this was Miller’s slowest of his six ODI hundreds, emphasizing how challenging it was to bat on the sticky Eden Gardens pitch.
South Africa finished their innings with 212, one short of the dreaded 213 which they made in the 1999 World Cup semi-final against the same opposition.
Watch David Miller bring up century with a six:
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