Playing for Rangpur Riders in match 30 of BPL 2024, Imran Tahir turned back the clock, putting up a memorable performance which won him the Player of the Match award.

Electing to bat first after winning the toss, Rangpur rode on the back of 60s by Shakib Al Hasan and Mahedi Hasan to register 219-5 from their 20 overs.

In response, Khulna lost Evin Lewis in the third over as Alex Hales went on the offensive at the other end. Rangpur captain Shakib rotated his bowlers actively, giving them short spells in the powerplay.

Imran Tahir was the fifth bowler to be brought on in the sixth over of the innings, and he struck gold immediately. Anamul Haque miscued a slog sweep on the fourth ball of the over and handed an easy catch to Hasan Mahmud at mid-off.

At the end of the powerplay, Khulna were 46-2. Tahir was hit for a six in his next over by Afif Hossain, but he had his revenge four balls later when he had the left-hander caught at the square leg boundary off another slog sweep.

Tahir then returned to bowl the 12th over of the innings with Khulna’s score reading 96-3. Hales, who was threatening to take the game away from Rangpur, became the veteran leg-spinner’s third victim of the night and his 500th victim overall in T20 cricket. A half-volley on the stumps was sliced to long-off and Hales had to go back for 60 off 33.

Tahir got two more wickets off his next four deliveries, first trapping Akbar Ali plumb in front with a flipper and then getting Habibur Rahman to play on off a googly.

This was Tahir’s fourth five-for in his T20 career as he finished the game with figures of 5-26. He became just the fourth bowler in T20 history to go past 500 wickets. To go with that, he also has a mind-boggling 784 wickets in first-class cricket.

Rangpur won the game by 78 runs.

Watch 44-year-old Imran Tahir take 5-26 vs Khulna in BPL 2024: