Who would have predicted that: Imran Tahir rocks West Indies with best ODI bowling figures for South Africa

In our feature series - Who would have predicted that? – we are looking back at matches where there were big upsets or extraordinary individual performances that turned matches on their head.

With 57 ODIs under his belt, Imran Tahir had become a regular feature for South Africa, originally known for their quicks. With figures of 7/45 against West Indies, Tahir became the fastest South African bowler to take 100 wickets, leaving behind Morne Morkel, who had achieved the feat from 59 games.

Match Summary

South Africa 343/4(50 overs) - Hashim Amla110 (99), Faf du Plessis*73 (50); Kieron Pollard2/64(9), Carlos Brathwaite1/69(10)

West Indies 204(38 overs) - Johnson Charles49 (41), Marlon Samuels24 (30); Imran Tahir7/45(9), Tabraiz Shamsi2/41(9)

Result - South Africa won by 139 runs

Tahir rightly credits the batsmen for his success as he wouldn't have had the room to attack as much as he did had the South African batsmen not posted a 343-run total on the board. 

Hashim Amla was the star batsman for the Proteas with a 110-run knock at a strike rate of over 110. Amla had a 182-run partnership between Quinton de Kock. Chris Morris, Faf du Plessis and AB de Villiers then forced the issue towards the end to take South Africa to the daunting total.

Fall of wickets: 1-182 (Hashim Amla, 33.1 ov), 2-185 (Quinton de Kock, 34.1 ov), 3-245 (Chris Morris, 40.3 ov), 4-309 (AB de Villiers, 47.3 ov)

West Indies were going well at 58 for no loss after 6 overs when Tahir was brought in. In his first over itself, he used several of his variations, with every other ball being a slider or a googly.

Tahir struck in his next over, accounting for Andre Fletcher. He was then brought back in the middle overs and dismissed Marlon Samuels. The West Indies batsmen kept taking on the wrist spinner and followed one another to the pavilion. It was one of the few occasions that South Africa played two spinners in Imran Tahir and Tabraiz Shamsi and reaped the rewards.

Tahir not only became the quickest to reach 100 wickets for South Africa but was also the second-fastest spinner after Saqlain Mushtaq to the milestone.

Fall of wickets: 1-69 (Andre Fletcher, 8.6 ov), 2-82 (Johnson Charles, 12.5 ov), 3-90 (Darren Bravo, 15.6 ov), 4-121 (Denesh Ramdin, 21.5 ov), 5-128 (Marlon Samuels, 22.5 ov), 6-169 (Jason Holder, 33.1 ov), 7-169 (Carlos Brathwaite, 33.2 ov), 8-170 (Kieron Pollard, 33.6 ov), 9-182 (Sulieman Benn, 35.3 ov), 10-204 (Jerome Taylor, 37.6 ov)

Teams

West Indies - Johnson Charles, Andre Fletcher, Darren Bravo, Marlon Samuels, Denesh Ramdin (wk), Kieron Pollard, Carlos Brathwaite, Jason Holder (c), Sunil Narine, Sulieman Benn, Jerome Taylor

South Africa - Quinton de Kock (wk), Hashim Amla, Faf du Plessis, AB de Villiers (c), Jean-Paul Duminy, Farhaan Behardien, Chris Morris, Wayne Parnell, Kagiso Rabada, Imran Tahir, Tabraiz Shamsi

Match Details

Match: West Indies v South Africa , 6th Match, Australia and South Africa in West Indies Tri-Series, 2016 

Date: Wednesday, June 15, 2016 

Toss: West Indies won the toss and decided to bowl 

Venue: Warner Park, Basseterre, St Kitts 

Umpires: Gregory Brathwaite, Nigel Llong 

Third Umpire: Richard Illingworth 

Match Referee: Jeff Crowe 

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