David Miller explains the mayhem, sort of

“I don’t quite know what went on there‚” David Miller said‚ between gulps for breath‚ in a television interview moments after he had rudely woken Potchefstroom from its Sunday snooze.

If Miller didn’t know how he had done what he had done what chance did the rest of us have?

He had hit seven fours and nine sixes.

He had faced 36 balls and batted for 53 minutes.

He had scored an undefeated 101.

He had shook up the world.

Miller broke the record for the fastest T20 international century by getting to three figures off 35 deliveries.

“I was really stoked to get the record‚” Miller told reporters after the match.

“It’s not something you wake up and you dream of every day.

“I do practise these shots but a lot of the time it comes instinctively and you go with the flow.” Flow? This was a flood.

Five of Miller’s sixes sailed over the ropes in one pyrotechnic over from hapless seamer Mohammad Saifuddin‚ who at the end of the madness of the innings had what seemed a ridiculously cordial conversation with his tormentor as they walked off the field.

“Tough luck‚” Miller could be heard saying.

Tough is spoiling a good over with a full toss that is spanked for four‚ or having a sitter dropped‚ or the umpire blowing a decision when you’re out of reviews.

What Miller did to Saifuddin was beyond tough.

Had it not happened on a cricket ground it might have been reason enough to summon the emergency services. Not that anyone who bowled to Miller on Sunday didn’t spill blood.

With Quinton de Kock rested and AB de Villiers gone for just 20‚ it was left to Miller to add muscle to the magic spell cast by Hashim Amla‚ who invented a befuddling new geometry to stroke his alchemic 85.

And to think Miller was dropped off the first ball he faced and could have been bowled or run out with the same delivery when he was on 18.

It was all too much for the Bangladeshis‚ who had endured thrashings every time they dared step over the boundary during their month of misery in South Africa.

But this was something else. They didn’t have to deal with De Kock. They had dealt with De Villiers.

Amla was in fine form‚ but respectful of their bowling. Then came Miller‚ who hit the ball as if it had insulted him‚ who had dared to try and hit every ball of an over for six — and not hiding his disappointment when he fell only one short.

They trooped off the field like the beaten men they were with South Africa’s total of 244/4 — the last 90 roared off five overs — glowering from the scoreboard. Then they were dismissed for 141 to seal their seventh consecutive loss on their tour.

“It’s like a virus‚” allrounder Shakib Al Hasan said of his team’s slow‚ sad sink to this sorriness‚ which started when they lost the first Test by 333 runs in Potch last month.

Perhaps it was too soon for them to return to the scene of that calamity‚ a cruelty too far for a team who have‚ mercifully‚ reached the end of their ordeal.

South Africa will have another warm-up for their season proper in a four-day‚ day/night Test against Zimbabwe at St George’s Park starting on December 26.

Then India arrive‚ followed by Australia: teams who‚ unlike Bangladesh and Zimbabwe‚ matter in world cricket.

So something else Miller said will be whizzing around Mumbai and Melbourne: “Playing against a lower-ranked team you can get complacent but we’ve really shown [Bangladesh] why we’re the best team in the world.”

Hit that for six.