South Africa vs Pakistan: Tabraiz Shamsi's unusual wicket celebration in the first T20I goes viral

It is easy to neglect an international T20I series amid the Indian Premier League (IPL) but Pakistan has been in some serious form against South Africa in their backyard. After clinching the ODIs 2-1, the visitors won the first of the four T20Is by 4 wickets and seem to have cracked the code for defeating South Africa.

Notably, Pakistan has defeated Proteas in all three formats of the game, a streak that commenced earlier this year when South Africa was clean-swept 2-0 by them in the Tests. Following that was another defeat during their tour to the nation, where they lost two games in the three-T20I series. While they would have hoped to avenge the losses as Pakistan arrived on their shores, nothing has quite gone their way.

Pakistan pulled off their highest successful run-chase in the first T20I, where Mohammad Rizwan’s brilliant 74-run knock remained the highlight. Even as little went South Africa’s way with the ball, a highlight for them was the manner in which No.1 ranked bowler of the format, Tabraiz Shamsi, celebrated his wickets during the game.

Tabraiz Shamsi’s unusual celebration

Shamsi was seen celebrating unusually twice as he bagged the wickets of Fakhar Zaman and Mohammad Hafeez in the 10th and 14th over, respectively. As he struck, the spinner took off his shoe and held it near his ear, as if he were calling someone. He returned with 2 wickets for 29 runs in his quota of four overs, though in vain as that could not assist his side.

Speaking of his strange celebration, his teammate Rassie van der Dussen had revealed that he pretends to call his hero Imran Tahir by taking off his one shoe every time after taking a wicket. “Yeah Shamsi always phones to Immy (Imran Tahir). Immy is obviously one of his heroes, and they work together a lot. So it was a nice moment for Shamsi to take a big wicket of Dhawan like Immy for us,” van der Dussen had said.

Shamsi has been the most consistent performer for his team and even though he did not have much business in the recent ODI series (only 1 wicket in two games), the leg-spinner got back into his groove as soon as he entered into his preferred format.