South Africa vs Zimbabwe 2018: Imran Tahir's Hattrick Rattles Zimbabwe For a Mere 78

Imran Tahir single-handedly floored Zimbabwe as South Africa beat the minnows by 120 runs to take an unassailable 2-0 lead, with one game still to play.

Meanwhile, Tahir returned to the squad after missing out the Sri Lanka series and has made an immediate mark. The veteran leg-spinner finished with six cheap wickets as his wrong ‘uns were too good for Zimbabwe’s middle and lower-order.

However, Dale Steyn started the rot with the ball. On a pitch which showed indifferent and menacing bounce, sometimes dangerously high and sometimes shockingly low, he got past Mire with the latter and had Craig Ervine in all kinds of trouble, before dismissing him – courtesy a blinder of a catch by Phehlukwayo at mid-wicket. Hamilton Masakadza fought bravely and so did Brendan Taylor – but once those two fell, the floodgates opened.

Imran Tahir used the momentum to full to become the fourth South Africa bowler to complete a hattrick. Tahir scalped the wickets of Sean Williams on the last delivery of the 18th over and then removed Peter Moor and Brandon Mavuta on the first two deliveries of the 20th over to complete his hat-trick. Before the legendary leg-spinner, Charl Langeveldt, JP Duminy and Kagiso Rabada were the three to complete a hattrick.

Imran Tahir, however, didn’t stop as he bagged three more to finish the game at six for 24 in his six overs. South Africa, at one stage, were reeling at 101 for seven before Steyn played a blinder to save the day for them. He partnered Andile Phehlukwayo to guide the Proteas post a challenging total of 198 runs on the board.

Dale Steyn, furthermore, brought his first ODI century scoring 60 runs off 85 deliveries including eight fours.

With the series already decided, South Africa and Zimbabwe will square off in a dead rubber on October 6 at Paarl.