Imran Tahir becomes first spinner in World Cup history to register this unique record

Imran Tahir achieved a few milestones yesterday during a match against England. The South African leg-spinner became the first spinner to bowl the first over in a World Cup match. No other spinner has bowled the first over of an innings before but Tahir after delivering the first over of the innings achieved this feat.

Tahir took a wicket in the second ball off his first over as he dismissed Jonny Bairstow for a golden duck. Tahir also became the oldest player to represent South Africa in a World Cup match as he broke Omar Henry’s record of 40 years 39 days, Tahir was 40 years 64 days old when he played the game against England yesterday.

Despite Tahir’s amazing performance, South Africa lost their first World Cup 2019 match against England by 104 runs. After the Proteas restricted England to 311 runs in 50 overs, English bowlers bundled out South Africa for 207 runs. Quinton de Kock and Rassie van der Dussen were the only batsmen to cross the 50-run mark.

Four England batsmen scored fluent centuries with Ben Stokes being their highest scorer. Stokes hit 89 runs off just 79 balls before he was dismissed by Lungi Ngidi. Jason Roy scored 54, Joe Root scored 51 and skipper Eoin Morgan scored 57 runs in the first innings. Jofra Archer for England took three wickets while Stokes and Plunkett took two each.

Also read: BCCI suspends KKR's Rinku Singh for three months, let go Irfan Pathan and Anuj Rawat