Birthday special: Imran Tahir – 3 Best Spells of his career
Come March 27 (Sunday), former South African leg-spinner Imran Tahir will turn 43. The veteran player apart from representing his country has played with several franchises all around the world. The Pakistan-born player can be termed as one of the cleverest leg-spinner to ever play the game of cricket. On his birthday, let us look at his top three spells during his cricketing career.
South Africa (7/45 vs West Indies at Basseterre, 2016)
The veteran leg-spinner wreaked havoc on the home side as he seven wickets against the West Indies during a tri-series between the West Indies-South Africa-Australia in June 2016. South Africa posted a mammoth 343/4 from their 50 overs after batting first. In reply, the home side started their chase well with both openers Andre Fletcher and Johnson Charles stitching a 50-run partnership. However, Tahir got the breakthrough for his side and he ended scalping seven wickets for 45 runs. South Africa won the contest by a margin of 139 runs.
South Africa (5/24 vs New Zealand at Auckland, 2017)
South Africa took on New Zealand in a one-off T20I in 2017. South Africa posted a competitive total of 185/6 with healthy contributions from AB de Villiers, skipper Faf du Plessis and JP Duminy. The home-side in their reply were reduced to 55/4 due to some excellent bowling by Chris Morris and Andile Phehlukwayo. However, things got worse for the home side with the introduction of Tahir in the attack. Tahir went on to take 5/24 as the Kiwis were bundled out for 107.
Chennai Super Kings (4/12 vs Delhi Capitals, 2019)
Imran Tahir was one of the key bowlers during a group stage match between Chennai Super Kings and Delhi Capitals in IPL 2019. Chasing a target of 180 in their allotted 20 overs, DC managed to score 59 runs during the field restrictions with Rishabh Pant and Shreyas Iyer looking good. However, the veteran spinner spun his web around the Capitals batters as soon as he got introduced. Tahir got key wickets of Pant, Axar Patel, Shefane Rutherford and tail-ender Amit Mishra. As a result, CSK won the contest by a huge margin of 80 runs. Tahir finished with four wickets giving away just 12 runs.
