He duly rewarded the Proteas with a stunning spell of bowling that saw him claim 4-27 as well as a direct hit run out.
With the batsmen making merry in most of the innings so far in the ongoing ICC Champions Trophy, former New Zealand skipper Brendon McCullum feels including a wicket-taking spinner can do the trick for the teams.
In the tournament-opener, England chased down Bangladesh 305-run target with utmost ease while in the second game New Zealand’s top-order took Australia’s formidable pace attack to the cleaners. The Black Caps had blasted 114 runs in the first 15 overs before a late comeback by Australia helped the World Champions to restrict Kane Williamson’s men to 291. Australia could not complete their inning due to rain and were 53 for three.
The only time a team failed to score 290 runs in full innings happened on Saturday (June 3) when Sri Lanka was bowled out for 203 while chasing 300 against South Africa. And the architect of that win was Imran Tahir.
Australia and England had already suffered for not including wicket-taking spinners in their playing eleven but South Africa did not commit the same mistake and was duly rewarded for it. Tahir bagged the Man of the Match award for his stunning spell of bowling that saw him claim 4-27 and help Proteas to start their campaign with the win.
McCullum, who is a part of the commentary panel for the tournament, said that the pitches have favoured the batsmen and including a spinner instead of an extra batsman or a pace-bowling allrounder will be a better option.
“To me, the most noticeable thing so far is the wickets are outstanding for batting,” McCullum said while commentating during the South Africa-Sri Lanka match.
“The first thing you look at is the balance of your team in my opinion. And I truly think when the wickets are so good for batting, you probably don’t need as much batting resource,” he added.
Citing England and Australia’s examples, the former Kiwi batsman added:
“So far we’ve seen two teams leave out wicket-taking spinners. I’d like to see the introduction of those wicket-taking spinners, maybe look to drop a batsman or a fast bowling allrounder and try and bring that wicket-taking option into play.”
Well, one just cannot disagree with McCullum. During the last edition of the Champions Trophy which was also held in England, India’s spin duo of Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin had played integral roles in helping the Men in Blue win the title. Jadeja was the highest wicket-taker in the tournament with 12 scalps to his name while Ashwin had claimed eight wickets.