Cricket World Cup 2015: How Imran Tahir helped South Africa reach the semis

Talent has never been a problem for Imran Tahir, but acceptance might have been in certain cases. After all, not many domestic teams would want to drop their own homegrown players for a maverick who has plied his trade for numerous teams all over the world.

A Pakistani who plays for South Africa, Tahir holds the record for representing the maximum teams in the world - 27. While some teams failed to recognise his talent, others just couldn't match up to his level of expectation - being a part of the playing XI in each and every match. It was finally in South Africa that his talent met opportunity.

Moments after winning the Man-of-the-Match Award in the quarter-final of this year's World Cup on Wednesday, Tahir said that he has got everything from South Africa and always looks at giving everything back - through his performance on the field.

In most cases one would think that the joy of performing on the big stage got the better of the player and all he meant was that he is proud to play for the country - a dream every cricketer harnesses. But if one looks at his career graph and the path he has travelled to reach where he is today, there is more to the statement than just ecstasy. He has been a journeyman in the true sense of the term.

After going through the grind in the domestic circuit, having moved to the Rainbow Nation after marrying Sumayya Dildar, Tahir finally found a place in the national team in 2011 having been granted citizenship by naturalisation. And as they say, the rest is history.

With 70 wickets in 37 ODIs, Tahir has become an integral part of the limited-overs set-up of the South Africa side and it was only poetic justice that he played a key role in the Proteas finally ending their knockout jinx by thrashing Sri Lanka by nine wickets in Sydney.

Spinners and South Africa could often be mistaken as oxymoron because the last time the Proteas had a spin bowler finding himself in the playing XI on a regular basis was during the era when Pat Symcox plied his trade for them. Since his retirement in 1999, South Africa have failed to match even Symcox's talent, let alone find a spinner in the Shane Warne - one of the best the world saw - mould.

At 35, Tahir isn't getting any younger, but Tahir is definitely here to stay.