Sohail Tanvir‘s 6-14 against Chennai Super Kings in IPL 2008, which remained the best bowling returns in the competition’s history until 2019, sits at No.3 in Wisden’s T20 spells of the 2000s, as picked by CricViz’s Freddie Wilde.

Sohail Tanvir 6-14

Rajasthan Royals v Chennai Super Kings, IPL 2008
Sawai Mansingh Stadium, Jaipur
May 4, 2008

Warne may have been the central strategic figure to Rajasthan’s iconic 2008 title-run but their most impactful players were Shane Watson with the bat and Sohail Tanvir with the ball.

Early wickets are so valuable in T20 and this match against Chennai illustrated that perfectly. After winning the toss and opting to bat Chennai’s top order was gutted by a spectacular display of swing bowling from the left-armer who removed Parthiv Patel with the first ball of the match, Stephen Fleming with the fourth and Vidyut Sivaramakrishnan with the 12th.

It was a long, long way back for Chennai from 11 for 3 and Tanvir returned at the death to snuff out their mini recovery taking the last three wickets to finish with figures of 6-14 to go along with two catches. Rajasthan knocked off Chennai’s 109 with more than five overs to spare – their fifth consecutive win and arguably the moment at which they graduated from a plucky side on a decent run to genuine title contenders.

Freddie Wilde is the author of Cricket 2.0: Inside the T20 Revolution, the Wisden Book of the Year 2020