'My son has been pushing me' - 47-year-old Tahir after becoming oldest to bag five-for

Tahir's figures of 4-0-17-5 against St Lucia Kings were also his best in T20 cricket

At 47, Imran Tahir beame the oldest player to take a five-wicket haul in T20 cricket, at Providence on September 9. Still rocking it in his late forties as Guyana Amazon Warriors' captain and premier spinner in the Caribbean Premier League (CPL), Tahir has said that his son motivates him to continue playing.

Tahir's 4-0-17-5 are also his best T20 figures, which came in his 461st game after he had made his day in the shortest format way back in 2006, when he was playing domestic cricket in Pakistan.

"For me, my role is obviously to contain [the opposition] in the middle," Tahir said after leading Amazon Warriors to victory against St Lucia Kings. "I'm an attacking bowler. If the wickets come, I don't mind. I think my son is the main guy who has been pushing me. He keeps telling me: 'Daddy, one more year...one more year and then you need to play with me'. So, it's a kind of motivation, I want to give it to him and all the youngsters who are watching me around the world.

"I put a lot of hard work into it and it's nice to see how it comes out the way you want it. It's not the personal achievement I look for. We work hard to get the personal achievement but I'm very lucky I delivered today."

Speaking to Cricinfo during CPL 2025, Tahir said that he dedicates his "Siuuu" and Victor Gyökeres' celebrations to his son.

"I have to because my son [who is travelling with Tahir], he asked me to do it (laughs). The celebrations are purely for him," Tahir had said in 2025. "He just loves football. I actually don't know the guy [Gyökeres'] who does this celebration, but I know he's a footballer. But look, it's nice, I want to put a smile on my son's face and hopefully a smile on the faces of other people as well, if they like it."There's no stopping Imran Tahir in the CPL•CPL T20

After Amazon Warriors had suffered their first defeat of the CPL season, against Antigua & Barbuda Falcons on September 8, they bounced back against Kings the very next day, thanks to Tahir's bag of tricks.

After turning a few legbreaks away from the right-handed Kamil Pooran and drawing a sliced hit from him, Tahir let rip a sharp-turning wrong'un to trap Kamil lbw for 43. He celebrated the wicket with typical gusto, setting off on a celebratory stint and bringing out the "Siuuu" celebration and blowing kisses to his beloved Guyana crowd.

Tahir set up allrounder Matthew Forde's wicket in similar fashion. Forde was so clueless that he offered no shot, expecting the ball to turn away from him. But instead it zipped in to crash into the top of off stump.

"It was a little bit turning for me, so I had to show a bit of my leggings [also]. Two or three spun away," Tahir said of his gameplan. "I think that plays in the batters' head and I've got my straighter one, which I can bowl and I can keep tricking batsmen - they wait for my straighter one and googly...and the way the ball comes out of my hand was really good.

"My lines and lengths were very good. It pitched on line and obviously turned very sharply. In Providence, you get that, but in the previous two games, I wasn't getting that kind of bite, but the credit goes to the length I bowled, I think."

After Tahir's five-for limited Kings to 119, Quentin Sampson powered Amazon Warriors' chase with an unbeaten 37 off 11 balls at a strike rate of 336.36. Only Andre Russell, Sherfane Rutherford and Darren Bravo have struck at a higher rate for a minimum of ten balls faced in a CPL innings.

"We've got four guys who can come anytime and they just need ten balls to change the game," Tahir said. "Sammo was one of them tonight and the way he hit the ball was incredible to watch. We know that the guys have power - Sheppy [Romario Shepherd], [Dwaine] Pretorius, and Shamar [Joseph] can hit some sixes. The middle part is really solid."

Amazon Warriors, who have already qualified for the playoffs, will meet Trinbago Knight Riders, who are just alive in the race for the knockouts, in their penultimate group-stage game on September 11. The CPL's fiercest rivalry tends to produce some spicy contests. For instance, when Amazon Warriors played TKR at Providence in the CPL 2025 final, Pollard was booed to which he reacted strongly at the time.

"The [Guyana] fans have always been there and really grateful to them," Tahir said. "They come every year in big numbers and we highly appreciate their support because when we play here, it's different than anywhere else. That kind of motivates me as well. Look, Trinidad is a very, very good team and it's a good challenge again. We're looking at one game at a time and we need to come up with our plans. They need to come with their plans and we can't wait for the game."