- By Namrata Vijay
- Thu, 06 Mar 2025 02:39 PM (IST)
- Source:JND
SA vs NZ ICC Champions Trophy 2025 Semifinal: South Africa's star batter David Miller has shed light on issues regarding his team's short trip to Dubai ahead of losing the second semifinal to New Zealand on Wednesday. The mega-event's hectic schedule forced both South Africa and Australia to go to Dubai before the semifinals.
The Temba Bavuma-led side's stay couldn't even last for a day as they came back to Pakistan without playing any game in Dubai.
It was Australia, who stayed back in Dubai and then lost the first semifinal to the Men in Blue. This scheduling row started when the Rohit Sharma-led side played all their group-stage matches in Dubai and didn't go to Pakistan, who are the hosts, owing to political and safety reasons.
"It's only an hour and 40 minute flight, but the fact that we had to do that was not ideal," Miller told broadcasters after losing the match by 50 runs to New Zealand in Lahore.
The Proteas flew to Dubai a few hours after beating England in Karachi last week.
"It's early morning, it's after a game and we had to fly. Then we got to Dubai at 4 p.m. and at 7.30 a.m. we had to come back. It doesn't make it nice. It's not like we flew five hours and we had enough time to recover and recuperate, but it was not an ideal situation still."
Miller scored a gritty knock of 100 runs off 67 balls but his efforts went in vain as South Africa lost to New Zealand, who will lock horns with India during the summit clash in Dubai.
The Kiwis posted a mammoth record-breaking target of 362/6 on the back of brilliant hundreds by Rachin Ravindra and Kane Williamson.
Temba Bavuma and Rassie van der Russen made significant contributions as they scored 56 and 69 runs respectively and thus stitched a gritty partnership of 105 runs for the second wicket. But the Kiwi spinners skittled them out for 312/9.
"It's not easy chasing 360, even if it's a good wicket" revealed Miller, who had smashed four sixes and 10 fours in his seventh ODI century. "I think the wicket just deteriorated when the game went on and they spun the ball a lot more than us. It's just they got a little more bit purchase out of the wicket".
Speaking of the summit clash, Miller boldly predicted, "I'll be honest with you, I think I'll be supporting New Zealand."
