Proteas must ‘step up’ in World Cup clash against Afghanistan, says Miller

David Miller plays a shot for the Proteas during their T20 World Cup match against Canada on Monday. Picture: Nikhil Patil/Getty Images After sweeping aside lowly-ranked Canada in their opening match, the Proteas need to brace themselves for their next two games this week at the T20 World Cup, according to big-hitting batter David Miller. The SA teamdefeated Canada by 57 runsin their first match of the tournament in Ahmedabad on Monday, but they will face stronger sides when they meet Afghanistan on Wednesday (7.30am start) and New Zealand on Saturday.

“It’s definitely a step up, but we came into this World Cup not wanting to take things for granted at all in any game,” Miller said yesterday. “So by all means our first game was a great start, but the next two games are really big, and we’re just going to take it one game at a time.” Playing their first three matches at the same venue was helpful, Miller said, with the national side becoming accustomed to the conditions at Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, where they would be based for the rest of the week. “The guys are really focused and ready, we prepped really well, and we feel like we’ve got kind of home conditions because we’ve been here for a couple of days and we’re here for another week,” Miller said.

“So it’s just really about looking after that and making sure we can actually be nice and strategic and tactical about it. “The guys are all playing really good cricket so I think they are going to be great games.” Though they still had a lot of work to do to reach the play-offs, Miller felt the Proteas were a settled unit and they were ready to put up a fight for their first World Cup trophy. At the last edition of theT20 World Cupin 2024, the national squad reached a final for the first time, and while they lost to India, they were confident of putting themselves in contention again for the global title at the ongoing spectacle in the short format. “This squad has played a lot together for a number of years, so it’s just about having faith and trust in each other,” Miller said.