On Wednesday (March 3), veteran South African spinner Imran Tahir paid his tributes to Tahir Mughal, a local coach and former Pakistani cricketer from Sialkot. Mughal was passed away on January 10 at the age of 43. He was diagnosed with stage four gallbladder cancer back in December 2020.
The late coach had appeared in 112 first-class games for Pakistan, where he picked up 502 wickets at an economy of 3.22, with 7/50 being his best. Mughal also played 84 List A matches and 26 T20s, scalping 88 and 10 wickets, respectively.
Tahir, who played his first game in the 2021 Pakistan Super League (PSL), represented Multan Sultans in their match against the Quetta Gladiators and performed outstandingly well. In his quota of four overs, the leg-spinner conceded only 29 runs and bagged two wickets.
Tahir removed both the openers – Saim Ayub (23) and Usman Khan (81). After dismissing Ayub in the eighth over with the Gladiators’ innings, Tahir took off his jersey, revealing a white T-shirt with Mughal’s photo on it.
“My brother. Will Miss You. RIP,” the message on the T-shirt read.
Here is the video:
A touching tribute by @ImranTahirSA for Tahir Mughal, the Pakistani ex-cricketer who passed away earlier this year. #HBLPSL6 | #MatchDikhao | #QGvMS pic.twitter.com/TCqoWLT5BO
— PakistanSuperLeague (@thePSLt20) March 3, 2021
In the game, Gladiators scored 176/7 in their allotted 20 overs. For the Sarfaraz Ahmed-led side, opening batsman Usman scored the maximum 81 runs from 50 deliveries laced up with 10 fours and three sixes.
In reply, Sultans were bundled out for 154 in 19.4 overs, thereby losing the contest by 22 runs. With that, Gladiators opened their account in the tournament after four consecutive defeats. Sultans’ skipper Mohammad Rizwan was the major highlight for his side after he smashed 66 off 50 balls with seven fours and two maximums.
On Thursday, the sixth season of PSL 2021 has been indefinitely postponed due to the sudden outbreak of COVID-19 positive cases. The organising committee and the team owners, along with the management, took the decision in a virtual meeting.
