Imran Tahir the big-match player for South Africa against New Zealand

The Pakistan-born leg-spinner has gone wicketless in only one of the 13 matches he has played in 50-over cricket’s showpiece event and will be a handful, writes Paul Radley.

Imran Tahir, who took four wickets against Sri Lanka in the quarter-finals, considers himself more South African than Pakistani and wears his pride on his sleeve. Indranil Mukherjee / AFP

AUCKLAND // Back in 2003, when wanderlust first grabbed Imran Tahir and led him to England to try to make a profession from cricket, he was offered a chance with Middlesex in the county game.

His debut was set to be aired live on Sky television. A one-day knockout match in May, against a Northamptonshire side including Mike Hussey and Graeme Swann, among other less luminous names.

Sounds a grand occasion, doesn’t it? Hardly. The TV audience only numbered in the hundreds, and there were not many more there in the flesh, either.

His side won by 26 runs defending a mere 214. He bowled 10 wicketless overs for 41, which was considered expensive in the context of the game.

Cricket has clearly changed out of sight since then, and so, too, has Tahir. He did not have the frosted highlights, the spiky hair, or the beard back then. And he was still a long way from being South African, as well.

The point of referencing that match is he was, by all accounts, a bundle of nerves before he took the field. Even though it was a low-key fixture, in front of not much more than two men and a Jack Russell Terrier.

Twelve years on, he is going to be a central figure in a match played on opposition territory, with 40,000 in the stands at Eden Park, as well as millions watching on TV.

Faced with the musclemen of New Zealand and their unpressed, high-powered bats, defending modest straight boundaries, with a place in the World Cup final at stake, he is going to need nerves of steel on Tuesday.

Tahir has broad shoulders now, though. He has the benefit of a lengthy professional career to draw on, including stints in the Indian Premier League and four years as an international player.

Tahir has without question become a big-match player, if statistics are a guide. Of his 70 ODI wickets, 29 have come in World Cup matches.

He has gone wicketless in only one of the 13 matches he has played in 50-over cricket’s showpiece event, and that counted for little as they thrashed Ireland in Canberra anyway.

Tahir took four wickets, including the talisman Mahela Jayawardene, and was the man of the match as South Africa ended their World Cup knockout struggles against Sri Lanka to reach this point.

To escape the chokers tag, some have mischievously said, they needed to import a Pakistani to do the business.

Tahir did, after all, play 16 one-day internationals for Pakistan’s Under 19s at the start of his career. Do not doubt his allegiance now, though.

“I think I am more South African than Pakistani now,” Tahir said after taking five wickets in a Test match in Dubai in October 2013.

“I am really honoured to be playing for South Africa. I appreciate what I have got from South Africa, and I will always remember that till the day I die. The country will never be forgotten from my heart.”

Tahir even used his love for his adopted country as the reason to explain his manic wicket celebrations, after the quarter-final win over Sri Lanka in Sydney.

“It is just because I want to enjoy everything I do for this team,” said Tahir, who will celebrate his 36th birthday on Friday, two days before the final in Melbourne.

“This is a dream, you know. Because maybe there is a million people who do not have this opportunity I have.

“To play for this team is just an absolute honour, and I think every wicket I take is just for South Africa. It has just given me such joy.”

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