Despite losing to Sri Lanka in the Headingley Test match, England did, eventually, show a bit of fight thanks to the heroics of Moeen Ali. After dominating the match for the first 3 days, England did their best to throw their advantage away through some unimaginative captaincy and poor bowling, followed by a pathetic start to their second innings. At the end of Day 4, they were staring defeat in the face and no one gave them much hope of surviving g beyond the early afternoon of the final day.
In the event, and helped by a bit of rain, they made it to the second last ball of the match. From 57-5, Moeen Ali, a newcomer with a beard that would have made the great 'WG' envious, batted throughout the day, nearly 6½ hours, and so nearly saved the day for his side. His grit and determination put the more senior batsmen in the team to shame, as did the guts shown by Jimmy Anderson during their 83 minute and 20 over last wicket partnership of 21. Anderson's '0' was a tremendous effort and his awful despair at his dismissal was gut-wrenching; it was impossible not to have felt tremendous sympathy for him.
As for Ali, his 108* was an innings of epic proportions. This not so young man (he's already 27), had a very successful year with the bat in 2013 and has now justified his place in the England team as a batsman, though not necessarily as the spinning all rounder that is really needed. If he could develop his bowling talents a little, he could make himself secure for the next 5 or more years, though it's a big *if*.
No comments:
Post a Comment