Twitter Reactions: Imran Tahir's masterclass gives South Africa 1-0 lead

Tahir, after his hat-trick in the second ODI, came into his own and picked up another five-wicket haul.

By Sabyasachi Chowdhury

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South Africa
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South Africa. (Photo Source: Twitter)

After clean sweeping Zimbabwe in the ODI series, South Africa continued their dominance on their opponents in the T20 series as well with a thumping 34-run victory in the first match at Buffalo Park in East London. Some powerful strokes from the visitors’ middle order gave the Proteas a scare. Nonetheless, the Proteas held their nerves and romped to the win.

Van der Dussen shines on debut

South Africa won the toss and had no hesitation to bat first and their start wasn’t an auspicious one. Quinton de Kock and Gihahn Cloete perished inside the first two overs and thereafter it was Faf du Plessis and debutant Rassie van der Dussen, who bailed the Proteas out of jail with a partnership of 41 runs, which was eventually broken by leg-break bowler Brandon Mavuta.

Van der Dussen and David Miller took the onus upon themselves and cobbled together an 87-run stand in pretty quick time. Van der Dussen notched his maiden half-century and was nipped out by Christopher Mpofu for 56 runs. Miller strained a wee bit as he crawled to 39 runs at a strike-rate of 114.71. The home team eventually went on to score 160 runs in their 20 overs.

Tahir shine with the leather

The run-chase didn’t start on an impressive note for the visitors as they lost three wickets for 11 runs in the first four overs. Brendan Taylor and Sean Williams found the boundaries, but Junior Dala picked up Taylor to jolt the Zimbabweans. Leg-break bowler Imran Tahir, after his hat-trick in the second ODI, came into his own and picked up another five-wicket haul.

His magical spell of bowling reduced Zimbabwe to 70/7 in the 13th over. Peter Moor and Brandon Mavuta played some scintillating strokes to keep the visiting team in contention for a victory. Moor was severe with his strokeplay, especially to Tabraiz Shamsi. He piled on 44 runs from 21 balls. Andile Phehlukwayo dismissed him in the 18th over to bring the curtains down on the match.

Here is how Twitter reacted

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