South African leg-spinner Imran Tahir, who went unsold in the Indian Premier League season 10 auctions and later added to the Pune squad, on April 6 thanked the Rising Pune Supergiant for giving him the opportunity.
In an interview to IPLt20.com after the match against the Mumbai Indians, Tahir said: “I am really grateful to God and my family,especially my wife, for supporting me. I was quite low when I went unsold in the auction, but life goes on.”
“I came here to prove myself again and my job is to perform whenever given an opportunity. Really pleased with my performance and looking forward to the upcoming challenges.”
Tahir brought the hosts back into the game with three quick wickets after the Mumbai opening duo of Jos Buttler (38) and Parthiv Patel (19) added 45 runs for the opening wicket.
“It’s a great feeling. Thanks to the Pune team who chose to call me and offered me a chance to play. It’s extremely kind of them to provide me with an opportunity to perform.”
Introduced in the fifth over of the match being played at Maharashtra Cricket Association stadium in Pune, Tahir struck in his second ball when he bowled Parthiv Patel round his legs before packing Mumbai skipper Rohit Sharma and Buttler in his next over to reduce Mumbai to 62/3.
In reply, Pune-led by Steven Smith from the front to clinch the nail-bitting victory over MI after the skipper smashed two long sixes to grab the victory with one ball to spare.
