'Calm' Proteas ready for familiar Afghanistan challenge in crunch T20 World Cup encounter

David Miller hopes familiarity breeds success when the Proteas face off against Afghanistan in a crucial T20 World Cup clash in Ahmedabad on Wednesday. 

Although the Proteas have only faced Afghanistan in three T20Is previously, which includes the Trinidad semi-final at the last T20 World Cup two years ago, both groups of players have come together quite frequently at the IPL and also the local Betway SA20. 

Miller, for instance, shared some great memories with Rashid when they played together for the Gujarat Titans right here in Ahmedabad, which climaxed with them winning the IPL in the self-same Narenda Modi Stadium in 2022. 

Rashid, meanwhile, has captained MI Cape Town in the Betway SA20 for the past four seasons, leading the Newlands-based side that contained Proteas Ryan Rickelton, Corbin Bosch and Kagiso Rabada to the championship last year. 

Miller and Mujeeb-ur-Rahman have also shared the same dressingroom at Paarl Royals for the past three seasons, while Proteas captain Aiden Markram gained some valuable insight into mystery spinner Noor Ahmad’s gameplans this past SA20 season together at Durban’s Super Giants. 

“It's definitely a step up. I mean, Afghanistan, they've got some really good spinners and experienced players,” Miller said. 

“But look, we came into this World Cup not wanting to take things for granted at all in any game. A lot of us have played with them and against them for a number of years now. So, the guys have a good idea of what they do well. We know what to expect and we just have to be on our best game.”

With the focus less on the opposition’s strengths and threats they may potentially pose, Miller feels it's more about how the Proteas are shaping up as they look to take one step further to qualifying for the next phase after their clinical victory over Canada on Monday. 

In this regard, he believes that the 2024 T20 World Cup runners-up are forming a squad where each individual is comfortable with the overall gameplan and is executing his role within it to perfection.

“We've played a lot together and yeah, it kind of does feel calm. I think it is definitely calmness. Guys are nice and focused and we just take one game at a time and just make sure that the build up from that 2024 final that we lost, just take a lot of confidence from that,” he said. 

“I put it down to the squad having played a lot together for a number of years. So, it's just having faith and trust in each other. It's not really necessarily trying to do too much out of the box. It's just making sure that you do your job and get it done properly.”

The “calmness” was certainly evident during Miller and Tristan Stubbs’ gamechanging 75-run partnership against the Canadians. With Miller playing his first competitive match since returning from injury, the veteran slugger initially struggled to find his rhythm as he limped to 16 off 17 balls. 

But with Stubbs striking the ball sweetly at the other end from the outset, Miller had sufficient confidence - both in his teammate and himself - to know that the partnership would continue to go at a decent rate, which it ultimately did with 47 runs coming off the last 18 balls. 

“We were in there for a couple of overs and I actually personally found it a bit tough to strike the ball,” he said. “I felt just a bit out of rhythm and whatever, but we managed to dovetail really well off each other. He was going really nicely at that stage and so we just kind of worked off each other.”

He is expecting the conditions to be a lot different though on Wednesday morning due to the early starts and feels how the Proteas adapt will be key to the result. 

“I think going into a day game, 11 o'clock, it's going to be different conditions. I truly believe that. So it's just making sure that we assess and adapt really quickly and well on the day,” he said.

“Yeah, so generally it might be a bit slow, turn a little bit more during the day, but it might not. In the past it's always been good chasing ground, so we'll see as we go along.

“I think we can actually be nice and strategic and tactical about it. But the guys are all playing really, really good cricket, so I think it's going to be a great game.”

SQUADS FOR AHMEDABAD 

Proteas: Aiden Markram (captain), Corbin Bosch, Dewald Brevis, Quinton de Kock, Marco Jansen, George Linde, Keshav Maharaj, Kwena Maphaka, David Miller, Lungi Ngidi, Anrich Nortje, Kagiso Rabada, Ryan Rickelton, Jason Smith, Tristan Stubbs.

Afghanistan: Rashid Khan (captain), Noor Ahmad, Abdullah Ahmadzai, Sediqullah Atal, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Naveen Ul Haq, Mohammad Ishaq, Shahidullah Kamal, Mohammad Nabi, Gulbadin Naib, Azmatullah Omarzai, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Darwish Rasooli, Ibrahim Zadran.

Start: 7:30am (SA time)