ICC Champions Trophy 2017: Sri Lanka vs South Africa, 5 Talking Points

#2 Tahir derails Lanka’s chase with a four-fer

Imran Tahir was the wrecker-in-chief for South Africa

How often has he done it? And how impressive is his consistency? Imran Tahir proved to be the difference-maker for South Africa yet again. As expected, Tahir troubled all the Sri Lankan batsmen with his wily variations and picked up four for 27.

The chase looked very much under control after Sri Lanka’s top-order got off to a good start. However, as he so often has done in the past, Tahir removed the key players and broke the backbone of the opposition’s batting order.

Chamara Kapugedera was Tahir’s first victim as he failed to read a googly and was out LBW off the very first ball. Soon after, Tahir removed the Lankan skipper, Upul Tharanga and Asela Gunaratne to leave Sri Lanka in deep trouble. It was only fitting that the leggie picked up the last wicket, that of Nuwan Pradeep to seal the game for his team.