BOWLED OVER LIKE NINE PINS
Supersaints quick knew he was injured, so he slowed it down
JUSTIN Miller enjoys the thrill of steaming in and bowling fast.
And despite a career-best haul of 9-41 at an uncharacteristically gentle pace, the tearaway St Albans-Breakwater quick has no plans to take his foot off the accelerator.
“The boys think I should just bowl at half-pace,” Miller said yesterday. “But I said ‘I don’t find it fun bowling slow’ and they said ‘what, you hate taking wickets?’ It might be something to look at. I’ve got something up my sleeve.”
Miller trumped his previous best seven-wicket performance with the 18-over spell at St Albans Reserve on Saturday, routing Waurn Ponds for 80. And that was despite a side strain in his fourth over.
“I didn’t want to stop bowling so I took the pace off it a little bit and the ball started to swing for me,” Miller said. “It was a nice change because they don’t normally swing.
“They were coming in, which was good for a lefthander. I was starting them outside off and they were swinging into the stumps.
“Then I held it the other way and it would go straight across him. It was working all right.”
Regarded as one of Geelong’s quickest bowlers, Miller admitted he had “lost that zip” against the Eagles. But he was reluctant to tell the coach of his injury in case he was forced to give the ball up.
“I was standing there thinking ‘no, my side is gone’, so I just eased it up,” Miller said.
“I didn’t tell the coach and after I got my first wicket I said ‘my side is gone but I’m getting it to swing here, so can I keep going’ and he said ‘no worries’.
“Then the wickets fell one after the other.”
In a 14-over burst he claimed nine scalps. With a bit more luck Miller could have had 10, with two wickets falling on no-balls and three catches dropped.
Pushing for the 10th wicket, Miller’s teammates did their best to get him across the line.
“My mate Jay Addy was bowling his spinners at the other end and he wasn’t trying to get a wicket. He was just putting them outside off stump and the No.11 had a go at it,” Miller said.
“Usually when a ball goes in the air everyone screams ‘catch it’ but no one said a word. It was dead quiet and I yelled out to Adam Hausler ‘just catch it’. I think the boys were trying to get me 10 (wickets) but what do you do?
“Who knows? The last partnership could’ve put on 30 or 40 runs and we could’ve lost.”
Only three players — Jack Brady (10-30), Colin Corstorphin (10-36) and G. Smart (10-68) — have achieved 10wicket hauls in GCA history.
Miller has claimed multiple six-wicket hauls with the Supersaints and one seven-for.
“Over the years I’ve just tried to run in and bowl as fast as I can and this time I just moved in and rolled the arm over and I got the wickets,” he said.