Ken Borland

David Miller knows that Pakistan will be at their most dangerous in South Africa’s crunch T20 World Cup game against them in Sydney on Thursday, but he feels he and the Proteas team have learned how to win in various pressure situations.

Pakistan have only won one of their three matches so far in the tournament, and if they lose on Thursday they are officially out of contention for semi-final qualification.

If South Africa win, they are guaranteed a semifinal place following Zimbabwe’s defeat on Wednesday. Either India or Bangladesh will join them in the last four.

“Pakistan are definitely more dangerous because it is a must-win game for them. They have some serious matchwinners and they are going to come in charging against us,” Miller said on Wednesday.

“So we’ll have to make sure we’re on our A-game, we stick to our processes and what has worked in the past. We are finding lots of different ways to win and have been doing that for the last year.

“In tricky situations we’ve managed to get over the line, thanks to the continuity of the squad. We’ve all found our roles and if one player doesn’t do well then others pick up the slack.

“For me personally it’s been a good ride over the last couple of years and being able to draw on past experience has been really valuable. I’ve been in a lot of different situations and I understand what’s required,” Miller, who averages 55.46 at a strike-rate of 158.81 since the start of 2021, said.

The Sydney Cricket Ground usually offers some purchase for the spinners and, as always when South Africa take on a subcontinental side, questions over their playing of spin have been asked. Miller feels it is an examination they have passed several times in recent history.

“We’ve played quite a lot in Indian conditions, we went to Pakistan not that long ago, and we have competed very well. Our focus in the last couple of years has been on playing spin.

“We have prepared well and we have lots of options against the turning ball now. We’ve definitely got the skills to perform against the Pakistan spin team.

“Then again, the conditions might not provide spin. Especially in Australian conditions, our pace attack has come into its own, they’ve brought a lot of energy and pace.

“We’re in a good space, we’re definitely in a good position in the tournament, but we know there is still lots to do. Playing as a team has allowed us to do well,” Miller said.

One can learn so many life lessons from sport and I am convinced that more can be learned from golf than most other codes. My own golf is certainly a lesson in dealing with frustration and how to extricate oneself from seemingly unreachable positions.

But professional golf, especially the Majors, provides such human drama and, as in life, disaster or glorious success seem just as likely to occur on the next hole.

Last weekend in the PGA Championship at Southern Hills, Mito Pereira was one hole away from one of the most astounding Major triumphs. He had seemingly beaten off numerous, way more experienced and storied challengers, on a chaotic final day to stand on the 18^th tee clinging to a one-stroke lead. All he needed was a par to become one of the rare rookies, playing just his second Major championship, to win on one of golf’s grandest stages.

The 27-year-old from Santiago, Chile, decided to go the aggressive route, and hit Driver. Except he made an awful swing and deposited his ball in the creek down the right, leading to a double-bogey. Not only was Pereira no longer at the top of the leaderboard, he wasn’t even in the playoff that would decide the fate of the Wanamaker Trophy, Justin Thomas eventually emerging as the champion.

When Pereira decided to take the risky route on the last, you could almost hear Sir Nick Faldo tearing his hair out in the commentary box. The man who famously made 18 pars to win the first of his six Major championships in the 1987 Open at Muirfield, could not fathom why the leader had not just played it safe.

It was a most frustrating end to what would have been a fairytale win. I have no doubt Pereira just went with Driver because it had worked before.

While sympathy for his cruel fate was the over-riding emotion, it does anger me when highly-talented sportspeople justify poor decision-making by saying things like “that’s just the way I play, that’s my game.”

Just as the rest of us have to adapt to the various challenges and frustrations of life, so sports stars have to adapt to their circumstances. Play the situation!

If you’re roaring to victory by four shots, or your team is 370/3 or 30-7 up, by all means be aggressive. But the truly great sports heroes are able to tailor their game to whatever the situation, or their team, requires in order to win.

For now, Pereira will be walking the Boulevard of Broken Dreams, but he certainly showed he has game and I will be surprised if he does not win on the PGA Tour, once he gets over this heartbreak. Most importantly, how he handled the devastating blow has been widely acclaimed and he fronted up to the media after his round when all he would have wanted was to go and hide away somewhere. Dealing with failure is another life lesson, of course.

Long-form sports, where the tension is gradually ramped up before it reaches a tremendous crescendo on the final day, are right up my street. Golf’s Majors, and especially the Ryder Cup, are still such compelling viewing even in an age where the cancer of instant gratification seems to reign supreme.

Golf can be just as slow as Test cricket, but the feeling of that tension building as you reach the final round is a bit like a Hitchcock horror movie – a masterful building of suspense.

Sport needs to have good stories, as well as the best players in the world in the limelight. How good was it to have an unknown like Pereira challenging for what would have been an incredible win in the PGA Championship?

Even though he was pipped in the end by one of the world’s best in Thomas, it was still wonderfully dramatic.

Test cricket can perhaps learn its own life lessons from golf. It can provide just as much drama, but it needs to be properly packaged, marketed and looked after by the ICC.