England V. South Africa Test Series: Moeen Ali Spins England To Victory In The First Match
Highlights:
- England won by 211 runs
- Moeen Ali picked up 10 wickets in the match
- England lead the series 1-0
Moeen Ali bowled the spell of his life to pick up 6 wickets for 53 runs in the second innings to hand England the victory in the first test match of the four match series at Lord’s. Chasing 331 runs, South Africa were bundled out for 119 runs in the final session on the fourth day of the match. Moeen Ali took the first ten wicket haul of his Test career as England romped to victory in Joe Root’s first game as captain.
England got off to perfect start in the match as they scored a lofty 458 runs in the first innings powered by a magnificent 190 by captain Joe Root. They took a 97 runs lead as they bowled out South Africa for 361. A frenetic fourth day in which 19 wickets fell gave viewers full value for their money. Before skittling South Africa, England lost their nine overnight wickets for 112. Lead by Alastair Cook’s gritty 69, England made the most of their lead to hand South Africa a target of 331 in the fourth innings on a dying pitch. Off-spinner Moeen took 6-53 for match figures of 10-112 as the Proteas, were unable to find any answers to his bowling. He ended with career-best figures in both the innings and the match and also cracked a crucial 87 in the first innings.
New England Test captain Joe Root: “It is a nice start, definitely. We have been very good throughout the four days.
“Everything I asked of the lads, they did. It’s great to go to Trent Bridge 1-0 up.
“It was nice to get the runs too, which is a monkey off the back. But throughout the game we had lots of good partnerships.”
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