Prepared from last year to bowl with new ball, says Imran Tahir

South Africa leg-spinner Imran Tahir on Saturday said that he has been preparing with a new ball from the last year to deliver initial overs of the match.

"It was a plan which I had been working on for the last year or so, bowling internationally with the new ball," Sport24 quoted Tahir as saying, ahead of South Africa's second match of the tournament.

Tahir further added that in future whenever he will be given the opportunity by skipper Faf du Plessis to start with the new ball, he'll gracefully accept it.

"Whenever I get an opportunity again like that, I won't be the guy who is going to say 'no' to my captain," added Tahir.

Tahir in the World Cup opener bowled the very first over of the match and got off of Jonny Bairstow for a duck in his second ball.

The 40-year-old impressive spinner said that it was a great challenge bowling against the top batsman of the world cricket who currently is in good form.

"It was a good challenge, a great challenge, bowling against two top players in world cricket who have been in form," said Tahir.

Tahir was pleased that the things went as planned and worked for him.

"I was just really pleased the way I came out and I got a wicket for the team and that was our plan, which worked," he added.

South Africa will play against Bangladesh at the Oval, London, starting at 3:00 pm (IST) today.