Cricket fans flooded social media with sympathy for David Miller after Delhi Capitals suffered a dramatic one-run loss. Yet former India spinner Ravichandran Ashwin said he was left “baffled” by Miller’s choice in the closing stages of the chase.
Delhi looked to be steering the contest in the final stretch as Miller struck key boundaries and rapidly tightened the equation. Everything, though, swung during the last over bowled by Prasidh Krishna, where the margin for error vanished.
Quick facts
- Delhi Capitals lost by one run in a finish shaped by the final over from Prasidh Krishna.
- Miller declined a single on the second-last ball, choosing to keep the strike.
- With two required off the last delivery, Miller missed a slower ball and tried to run.
- Jos Buttler’s alertness led to a run-out at the striker’s end, leaving Kuldeep Yadav short.
- Ashwin questioned the logic of refusing the score-leveling single and said it hurt Delhi’s confidence.
On the second-last ball, Miller opted against taking even a single, instead retaining the strike. Ashwin suggested that move only piled pressure at the worst possible time, because it removed an easy route to face the final ball with the equation settled.
Then, needing two runs off the last delivery, Miller couldn’t get hold of the slower ball and went for a desperate attempt to steal runs. Buttler reacted sharply and executed a run-out at the striker’s end, which meant Kuldeep Yadav was left short—turning the chase into a heartbreak for Delhi.
Ashwin later spoke at length in a video on his YouTube channel, laying out why the call left him stunned. He said he couldn’t understand the decision and described it as “bonkers,” pointing out that with two runs required, the simplest plan was to take the single and keep the pressure manageable.
In Ashwin’s view, if the goal was to score four or six, then a boundary-based approach would have made sense. But with just two needed, he felt Miller should have played for the one-run option, allowing Kuldeep to come on strike or at least keeping the game alive heading into the final delivery.
Ashwin also argued that even if Kuldeep were dismissed in the process, reaching the Super Over would still represent a successful outcome in a high-scoring chase. “I am not able to wrap my head around it,” he added, emphasizing that the reasoning behind refusing the single was beyond him.
A knock-on effect for Delhi
While Ashwin acknowledged that mistakes can happen to anyone, he said he couldn’t find a coherent explanation for what Miller was thinking. He highlighted how Delhi had a strong squad and suggested that the moment could carry a psychological cost for the team.
According to Ashwin, Miller’s decision didn’t just affect the ball-by-ball outcome—it also shook Delhi’s confidence. He argued that the result gave Gujarat Titans a mental boost, because a side that loses narrowly often returns with renewed focus on how to climb back in the tournament.
He further said that letting Gujarat back into the conversation created a “catch-22” feeling for them, while Delhi remained stuck on four points. Ashwin summed it up as a lifeline thrown to the opposition at a time when Delhi needed to convert pressure into points.
