Siuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!
Tim Seifert turned Moeen Ali’s off-spinner off his toes in the direction of backward square-leg where Guyana Amazon Warriors captain Imran Tahir had stationed himself.
It was over number ten of the second innings in Match 29 of the 2024 Republic Bank Caribbean Premier League (CPL) and the Saint Lucia Kings (SLK) were still in the game. Just.
Chasing a daunting 208 and still needing 133 for the win with 11 overs left, they would not have thought that their chances of victory were great. But the not out batsman at the other end was SLK opener and skipper Faf du Plessis.
And it was Seifert’s blistering, destructive 64 off 27 balls that had propelled the Kings to a splendid five-wicket win in Match 5. The Saint Kitts and Nevis Patriots’ imposing 201 had also seemed insurmountable—especially as, when Seifert strode to the wicket, the SLK score stood at 24 for 4 in over number four.
The in-form wicket-keeper/batsman took off down the track for what he expected would be an easy single. But, right-handed, the fieldsman at 450 dived low to his left and came up with the catch.
Getting swiftly to his feet, Tahir took off at his habitual canter around the field, decelerated and leapt into the air, his arms criss-crossing and then uncriss-crossing in front of his airborne chest. It is a now familiar celebration, one he adopted because of his son’s admiration for Portuguese football star, Cristiano Ronaldo.
Siuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!
But lest you are tempted to jump to the conclusion that this 45-year-young South African old horse is a one-trick pony, hold your horses!
Tahir claimed only one wicket in the last group stage match, bowling Shaqkere Parris for a duck in the first over of the game. And in Qualifier 1 which they lost to the Saint Lucia Kings on Wednesday evening, he went wicketless.
But in each of the last six GAW matches before Match 30, Tahir came away with two wickets. At least!
Against new franchise Antigua and Barbuda Falcons in Match 23, a week before he stunned the Kings with his brilliance in the field, Tahir etched his name in CPL history when he became the first non-West Indian to reach 100 CPL wickets—and the third overall.
On the list ahead of him are Trinbago Knight Riders’ Sunil Narine (123) and the now-retired DJ Bravo (129).
For Tahir, who stepped away from the international game in 2019, consistency has been a hallmark; he has spun his way to at least 13 wickets in each of his seven seasons.
In last season’s final against the four-time champs TKR at the National Stadium in Providence, Guyana, Tahir called correctly at the toss before Dwaine Pretorius (four for 26) helped the hosts roll over TKR for 94 en route to winning their maiden title.
Losing finalists on five previous occasions, and once versus their rivals TKR in 2018, the Warriors finally earned the right to upgrade from bridesmaids to the ones who say ‘I do’. Under Tahir’s leadership.
A member of the Warriors team since 2018, the South African had to experience the lows while he waited for the highs. The loss to TKR in the 2018 final in Tarouba was compounded by defeat to the Barbados Royals in the 2019 finale at the same venue.
In that season, GAW won every one of the 11 matches they played except the one that mattered most.
But, much like their leader Tahir—who made his international debut at age 31 in a 2011 World Cup match against the West Indies—the Guyanese remained resolute.
After rain, Johnson Charles and the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern Method (not, it must be noted, faulty artificial lights) combined to floor the Warriors by 15 runs in Qualifier 1 on Wednesday night, Tahir and his troops will need to show that resolve again when they attempt to qualify for a seventh final.
They face the Royals from 7pm in the second qualifier on Friday.
Though they tasted defeat in their last two matches and, according to most TKR supporters, got a taste of “karma”, the Warriors will back themselves to triumph at their Providence fortress.
Before their latest speedbump, the record showed four wins on the bounce this season.
In Tahir, they have a bowler who continues to defy Father Time and a captain who leads by example. The examples of his wizardry with the ball are legion and, as TKR found out in Match 30, he can wield a straight defiant bat when the occasion warrants it.
As Seifert found out to his cost, he can produce heroics in the field on occasion as well.
Though forced by illness earlier this season to miss two games, including TKR’s tense Match 19 five-wicket win over the Warriors at the Queen’s Park Oval, Tahir has already grabbed 15 wickets—he continues to outfox many of the region’s top right-handers with his googlies and orthodox leg-spinners.
Kings’ middle-order batsman Roston Chase, for example, only just received endorsement from Cricket West Indies (CWI) in the form of a one-year international contract. But the Barbadian will most certainly be rooting for the Barbados Royals in Friday’s second qualifier, preferring not to see Tahir in a hurry out in the middle.
In the two meetings between the Warriors and the Kings this season, Chase, the 2021 CPL MVP, was castled on both occasions by Tahir—playing for turn away from his body as the ball turned in to him and crashed into his stumps.
Often touted as one of the better players of spin in the region, the right-handed Chase had no answer.
He is not alone, though. Tahir’s 15 scalps this season have all been right-handers, including WI T20 captain Rovman Powell, who chipped down the wicket and kept going straight to the pavilion—after losing his stumps in the Match 27 meeting between the Royals and the Warriors last Wednesday.
Offering the Royals key left-handed options in their top order are Quinton de Kock, Alick Athanaze and a dangerous-looking David ‘Killer’ Miller who’s arguably rounding into his best form.
So the 45-year-young Tahir may well be required to dip into his bag of tricks and treat Warriors fans to a handful of Siuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu celebrations before the weekend is out.