Miller determined to emulate his heroes

The hard-hitting South African batsman is a product of Maritzburg College, like Rhodes, and has also modelled his game on former Australia opener Hayden.

"Jonty was a hero of mine when I was growing up," said Miller, who will be 22 next Friday. "The way he conducted himself set a great example for us at the college and he played with a lot of energy.

"But if there's someone I'd really like to emulate as a batsman it would be Matthew Hayden. I really enjoyed the way he batted.

"He hit the ball very hard and I like to do the same. I worked hard on building my strength after school."

Miller, who averages 41 in six Twenty20 internationals, is from Dale Benkenstein's home state of Natal and played under Durham's one-day captain two years ago.

"Dale came over to help us out and I got to know him then," said Miller. "We built up a nice relationship and I'm looking forward to carrying that on.

"I have heard lots of good things about Durham and the team and I will be really happy if I can contribute and be the best team man that I can be.

"It's also an opportunity to get into the Champions League, which would be very exciting. There are so many opportunities within Twenty20 now, but I really enjoy all the different formats and over the next two years I intend to work hard on my first-class form."

Not that he was out of touch in his last first-class game, the 29th of his career, as he made his best score of 149 for the Dolphins against the Lions at the end of March.

After that he was summoned to the Indian Premier League as a replacement for Dimitri Mascarenhas in the King's Punjab squad.

He didn't get a game but believes he benefited from the experience, saying: "I worked with the spinners and hitting the bad ball, which is key there.

"I really picked up on the atmosphere from the supporters, who are passionate about the game."

Miller says he developed his love of cricket as a five-year-old when he would go to watch his father playing for the Country Districts team and would face a few throw-downs from him during the lunch interval.

After school he joined the South Africa Academy and was there from April to September in 2009 before graduating to the South Africa A side.

"That took up most of the off season," he said. "I've been to Sril Lanka, Bangladesh and the West Indies with them so the last year and a half have been quite busy.

"Thankfully, Newcastle Airport was fairly quiet when I arrived. I'd been home for a week, which was pretty hectic with things like getting my visa sorted out.

"Now it's good to be here. I know Durham have started the season really well and I'm looking forward to helping them continue that. I used to bat at three at school but since then I've been in the middle order. I'd be happy to bat anywhere for Durham."

Miller has a best Twenty20 score of 90, which is ten more than the current best for Durham, made by New Zealander Ross Taylor when they amassed their best total of 225 for two against Leicestershire last year.

They briefly ran into form at that point, making 215 for six at Edgbaston, with Ian Blackwell scoring 79 as they won by 15 runs against the Warwickshire team who went on to top the group.

Durham's Twenty20 campaign came adrift in an 11-run home defeat by Nottinghamshire, when they looked like overhauling the visitors' 186 for four until Benkenstein departed for 40 to a controversial boundary catch by Alex Hales.

It was the first of five successive defeats and Durham finished eighth out of nine in the group, despite the outlay on bringing in Taylor and Albie Morkel.

Taylor was able to stay for only 11 matches but hit 23 sixes and averaged 39.37 with an outstanding strike rate of 173.07 runs per 100 balls.

Benkenstein has been the best of Durham's regulars over the last few seasons, averaging 27.46 in 55 matches with a strike rate of 126.74, prior to Thursday night's match against Warwickshire.

Until that game England's Twenty20 winning captain, Paul Collingwood, had played only six T20 matches for Durham and had been more impressive with the ball than the bat.

His 13 wickets had come at an average of 9.07 with an economy rate of 6.43 an over. Anything below seven is a very acceptable economy rate and the only Durham regulars to have achieved it are Gareth Breese (6.72) and Graham Onions (6.42).

While declaring his determination to do well for Durham, Collingwood remains non-committal about his long-term future.

"I'm very determined to continue as a one-day international player," he said. "I know if I get back into my best form it's going to be very hard for them to leave me out because I can be a very dangerous player.

"But you've also got to be realistic. Losing the Twenty20 captaincy shows that the team is moving on all the time. So if it's over for me, I'm still delighted with the contributions I've made. If there wasn't another opportunity to play for England, I've had a decent career."

England's selectors will pick their first post-World Cup squad for limited-overs cricket during the Lord's Test. If Collingwood fails to make that party, it would leave only the NatWest Series against India before his central contract expires on September 30.

"I think there's going to be a lot of things happening in the next four weeks in terms of how well I do, if I get my form back, if I get back in the England side, how much I enjoy coming back and playing for Durham.

"All these emotions I'm going to have to gauge and at the end of the season make a decision," said Collingwood, who retired from Test cricket in January

"It's been a barren last 12 months for me, but now I want to enjoy my cricket with Durham and help them to win games.

"We all know we have the skills and the talent within the squad to do well and there's a real focus on Twenty20 now, with Dale Benkenstein back as one-day captain. We've had a lot of discussions about how to approach it."

Since Twenty20 started in 2003 it has been dominated by southern teams used to going for their shots on faster pitches.

Durham have progressed beyond the group stages only twice and on their one visit to finals day at the Rose Bowl in 2008 even the presence of Shaun Pollock and Shivnarine Chanderpaul in their team didn't help.

The West Indian scored his 48 too slowly as they were restricted to 138 for six by Middlesex, then South African slogger Tyrone Henderson blasted an unbeaten 59 to earn an eight-wicket win with 4.2 overs to spare.

The following year they suffered even greater embarrassment in the quarter-final at Canterbury, where they were all out for 93 in reply to Kent's 149 for seven.

Durham had Australian David Warner in the team that year, but both he and fellow opener Phil Mustard were out for nought.

Last year's attempts to improve seemed to founder in the middle of the team's general malaise. But spirits are very high at the moment and a trip to Worcester tomorrow should not be too daunting. After that come floodlit matches at Northampton on Thursday and Derby on Friday, followed by the visit of Derbyshire next Sunday afternoon.

Then comes Nottinghamshire home (14th) and away (16th), which could prove the pivotal point of Durham's campaign.