Tahir celebrates a wicket on no-ball, gets mocked by fans
South Africa suffered a defeat against the Australian Prime Minister's XI ahead of their 3-match ODI series, starting Sunday. The Proteas lost the match by 4 wickets against a side which had only three players with international experience. And to add on to that, Proteas spinner Imran Tahir was caught up celebrating a wicket off a no-ball and was mocked by the fans.
Tahir does the unthinkable!
How did the incident unfold?
Kagiso Rabada bowled a short ball to batsman Josh Philippe, whose pull shot saw the ball land in the hands of Tahir. The spinner, who picked a nice catch, didn't notice it was a no-ball and started to celebrate in front of the crowd. Tahir also pointed at the back of his shirt. Moments later, an embarrassed Tahir threw the ball back.
Aussies under pressure to turn things around
Australia are under huge pressure to crawl their way back into the top. It has been 21 months since Australia last won an ODI series. The Aussies have lost 16 of the 18 completed ODIs since their 4-1 series win against Pakistan in 2016. They also have the poorest win-loss ratio of 0.125 during this period.
Aussies seek to improve their behavior
Australia are also in focus given that their last meeting against South Africa, earlier this year, saw the leaders being involved in the infamous ball-tampering scandal. The last 8 months have been dismal with some grim results on the field as well.