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Davis Miller is unhappy that South Africa had to fly to UAE and then back to Pakistan because of “not ideal” Champions Trophy scheduling.
David Miller scored a century in South Africa’s semifinal defeat to New Zealand. (AP Photo)
While disappointed at South Africa having made a semifinal exit from the Champions Trophy 2025, David Miller has also slammed the “not ideal” situation that forced his team to take a morning flight to Dubai after playing a group match against England the previous night.
South Africa landed in Dubai on Sunday in order to have enough time to prepare in case they end up playing in the first semifinal of the tournament. Once the matchups became clear, South African team headed back to Pakistan on Monday morning to play the second semifinal slated to be held in Lahore.
“It’s only an hour-and-40-minute flight, but the fact that we had to do that (was not ideal). It’s early morning, it’s after a game, and we had to fly. Then we got to Dubai at 4 pm, and at 7.30 in the morning we had to come back,” a dejected Miller told reporters after South Africa lost to New Zealand in the second semifinal on Wednesday.
“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 to be honest. I’ll be honest with you. I think I’ll be supporting New Zealand,” he added.
Centuries from Kane Williamson and Rachin Ravindra helped New Zealand to a mammoth 362/6 at the Gaddafi Stadium. Miller then scored a century, but South Africa finished at 312/9.
“There were really good contributions, a couple of fifties up front. We had a really good foundation. Unfortunately, in the middle, we lost a couple of wickets too many. At the end of the day, it’s a team effort,” Miller said.
“Everyone’s trying out there to do their best. It would have been nice to have a rematch against India. But life is not fair sometimes. Anyone has to work really hard to achieve trophies,” he added.
- Location :
Lahore, Pakistan
