IPL 2019: Imran Tahir is on the verge of breaking a 9-year-old IPL record

What's the story?

Imran Tahir is set to break a 9-year-old record in the history of IPL. The leggie now has a total of 21 wickets with the ball in the tournament, which is the joint highest for a spinner in a season, along with Deccan Chargers' Pragyan Ojha in 2010.

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CSK strongly holds the top position currently in the points table after winning against Delhi Capitals by a margin of 80 runs at their den. The defending champions got a helping hand from Tahir who bowled an amazing spell of 4/12.

With Kagiso Rabada out the tournament, the South African spinner also has the bright opportunity to win the Purple Cap.

The heart of the matter

CSK have had a dream run in this season as they became the first team to seal the playoff spot. The team's spin twins Tahir and Harbhajan Singh have played a great role with the ball for the team with the former exceeding other spinners in the tournament. The South African has scalped a total of 21 wickets in 13 games with a pleasing economy rate of 6.30.

Tahir is having his most successful IPL season.The Parashakthi Express has scalped 4 wickets in a match on 3 occasions this season. The departure of Rabada would help the leg-spinner to lead the wicket taking charts. Tahir lags behind the speedster with a small margin of 4 wickets.

CSK is having their last game left against KXIP and at most, they will play three more games in the play-offs. If the leg spinner takes 5 more wickets, he will become only the second spin bowler and first overseas spinner in the history of the IPL to win the Purple Cap.

On the other hand, if he takes exactly 4 wickets, the economy will come into play at deciding the winner between him and Rabada. In all, he is almost certain to surpass Ojha's haul from the third season of the IPL, a record for spin-bowlers that has stood for nine years now.

What's next?

With CSK set to play their last league game against KXIP, it would be exciting to see how Tahir fares against a batting line-up that has not done well against spin bowling in this season.