Tahir trots to 15 WC wickets
IMRAN TAHIR’S manic celebrations have quickly become the stuff of legend and it often appears that were it not for the stands, nothing would control his outrageous sprints around the outfield. He may very well run out of the ground… in fact he once did.
Tahir, pictured below, cut a much more composed figure as he addressed the media following his man-of-the-match performance in yesterday’s thumping quarter-final win over Sri Lanka here. Each of his four wickets ended with one of those crazy sprints, to wherever the spirit took him.
His teammates have stopped trying to keep up, usually just jogging in his general direction and then waiting for him to stop – which can take a while. “It’s in me. I don’t practise it. That’s how I play my cricket,” the leg-spinner remarked.
He then reduced the room to fits of laughter recounting a tale of a ground that hadn’t been able to contain his enthusiastic celebrations.
“There’s a gentleman here from Stoke-on-Trent, he knows,” he said pointing to one of the reporters.
“I played a club game in Stoke, which we won and I took a very good catch, and I think I ran out of the ground. They had to tell me which way to go back to the ground, I was on the road, I’m not sure where I was – that’s a true story, I’m not making it up. It’s something I can’t (explain)… I want to enjoy everything I do for this team.
“This is a dream, there are millions of people who don’t have the opportunity that I have, to play for this team is an absolute honour. Every wicket for me, is for South Africa, for me, it just gives me so much joy. I don’t know why it comes out in that way…”
Tahir increased his World Cup tally to 29 wickets from just 12 matches, putting him third behind Allan Donald (38 from 25 matches) and Shaun Pollock ( 31 from 31 matches)
He has continued to underline his immense value to the team here, with his wicket- taking ability through the middle overs and yesterday, it was his dismissal of Lahiru Thirimanne, which proved pivotal in the match’s outcome.
He is one of four bowlers to have taken 15 wickets in this tournament, putting him joint second on the leading wicket-takers list behind Australia’s Mitchell Starc, who’s taken 16.