Dunamis Player of the Week: Imran Tahir

2015 World Cup

Cricket365
August 17, 2016

If we could give away awards for sheer wicket-taking joy, and the most exuberant celebration ritual in world cricket, then South Africa spinner Imran Tahir would win every week. Oh what the heck, we're giving it to him anyway.

Tahir is our Dunamis Player of the Week not only for his mad dash to the boundary, but also for the small, tiny, irrelevant fact that he played a big part in seeing the Proteas win their first-ever World Cup knock out game.

The former Pakistani, sporting his neatly trimmed beard and crazy eyes, has often been the subject of ridicule, especially in the Test arena, but his four wickets against Sri Lanka paved the way for a nine-wicket drubbing in the first quarter-final.

Tahir's entire World Cup has been quite excellent, after being picked in the squad against popular consensus. Tahir's ODI record is actually rather superb, chalk and cheese to his Test one. He averages nearly 50 in Tests, but under 20 in ODIs.

In this tournament he's one of the leading wicket-takers, and is the only spinner to have bagged a five-fer on the generally quick decks around the Antipodes. He took those five against the West Indies at the SCG.

Honourable mentions go to South Africa opener Quinton de Kock, who finally got a half ton on the board at just the right time, and India opener Rohit Sharma, who scored a century in their winning quarter-final against Bangladesh after a tricky start.

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