Batsmen beware of two-faced Imran Tahir
Bowler is the only South African besides Kagiso Rabada in the top 10 ODI bowling rankings
Imran Tahir is the only South African besides Kagiso Rabada in the top 10 ODI bowling rankings. He is also two-faced. One of those faces‚ Tahir’s default‚ welcomes you with openness and friendly eyes. The other flares like a flame the instant he flicks the switch and steps onto the field‚ and reaches full intensity when he marks out his run-up. It is a face of fierceness and focus armed with laser eyes that could set something on fire. Happily‚ it hasn’t. So far. But that look has no doubt helped Tahir to dismiss 206 batsmen in 124 white-ball internationals. That’s more wickets than any other SA spinner‚ in either of those formats. Against Zimbabwe in Paarl on Saturday‚ Tahir switched faces earlier than usual: for the first time in his 88 ODIs he opened the bowling‚ sharing the new ball with Dale Steyn. In his first spell of four overs‚ the googly bowler — to cast someone who sends down exponentially more wrong ’uns than leg breaks a leg spinner is unnecessarily misleading — he went...
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