Former South Africa spinner Imran Tahir is known for his extraordinary bowling and ability to puzzle the best batters in the game. The leg-spinner gave a glimpse of his splendid capabilities during the 23rd match of The Hundred between Birmingham Phoenix and Welsh Fire at Edgbaston in Birmingham on Monday.
Tahir helped Phoenix to defend their total of 184/5 by taking the first-ever hat-trick of the ongoing tournament. It all happened on the 72nd, 73rd and 74th ball when the right-armer took back-to-back wickets to reach the milestone.
Tahir first removed Qais Ahmad for just 1 run with a typical leg-spin pitched outside off-stump, forcing the batter to have a go at it. Ahmad did precisely that and got caught at the mid-off region. Ahmad was followed by Adam Milnes, who was trapped in front.
As expected, Tahir bowled a googly to David Payne to pick up his third consecutive wicket to complete the hat-trick. The batter anticipated it as a leggie as he tried to guide the ball towards cover, but the white leather crashed the gates to hit the middle-stump. No wonder, after completing the feat, the veteran bowler ran across the ground in his traditional celebration style.
Here’s how the hat-trick took place:
- Ball 72: Tahir to Ahmad: Classic leg-spin outside the off-stump. The batter tried to hit over the top but chipped straight to mid-off.
- Ball 73: Tahir to Milnes: a quicker delivery that skitted through the surface and hit Milnes plumb in front.
- Ball 74: Tahir to Payne: A googly pitched just outside off-stump and went in between the bat and pad of Payne.
Here is the video:
https://twitter.com/sparknzsport/status/1424836104776081412
Apart from the hat-trick, Tahir bagged two more wickets to complete his fifer. He conceded 25 runs from 19 deliveries, including 10 dot balls. Riding on Tahir’s sensational bowling, Phoenix bundle out Fire for 91 to win the contest by a massive margin of 93 runs.
