Exactly a couple of years ago, South Africa’s Imran Tahir registered his second ODI five-wicket haul against West Indies in the sixth match of the West Indies Tr-Nation Series at Basseterre, St Kitts. In which ended up being a ‘Man of the Match’ performance, it was also the best bowling figures by a South African bowler in ODIs, the third-best for a spinner overall.

Jason Holder, West Indies’ captain, had won the toss and chose to field. On the back of Hashim Amla’s 23rd ODI century, 110 (99), with the help of 13 fours, South Africa scored 343-4 in their allotted quota of 50 overs. Contributions from Faf du Plessis (73*) and Quinton de Kock (71) aided in South Africa’s progress. With bowling figures of 9-0-64-2, Kieron Pollard was the hosts’ pick of the bowlers.

In their reply, West Indies had sent in their openers in Andre Fletcher and Johnson Charles. Tahir was introduced into the attack as the first-change bowler in the seventh over of the second innings. He affected his first dismissal in only his second over when Fletcher’s (21) attempt of dispatching the ball over the mid-wicket boundary was caught brilliantly in the deep by Farhaan Behardien.

Tahir was successful in breaking a swift 69-run stand between the West Indian openers. Perhaps, it was a dearth of wickets which had forced AB de Villiers to introduce his premier spinner in the first powerplay. Tahir was removed from the attack after he served the purpose. By the time Tahir picked up his next wicket, West Indies had already lost four wickets.

Bowling his fifth over, the 23rd of the innings, Tahir induced the outside edge of Marlon Samuels’ (24) bat which was caught by de Kock behind the wickets. Bowling the first over of his third spell, Tahir picked up three wickets which saw the West Indies crumbling to 170-8 in the 34th over. Having dismissed Jason Holder (19), Carlos Brathwaite (0) and Pollard (20), all in dissimilar ways, Tahir completed his five-wicket haul.

In his next two overs, Tahir dismissed Sulieman Benn out caught at backward point and bowled Jerome Taylor (16) to become the first South African bowler to pick up seven wickets in an ODI match. West Indies ended up scoring 204-10 in 38 overs as South Africa registered a bonus point victory (by 139 runs). Tahir eventually registered bowling figures of 9-0-45-7.

Watch the full video of Tahir’s spell: