Moeen hattrick routs Proteas, England lead 2-1

LONDON: Spinner Moeen Ali finished off South Africa with a hattrick as England completed a crushing 239-run victory in the third Test at the Oval on Monday to move 2-1 ahead in the series.

Moeen became the first England spinner to achieve a hattrick in 79 years by dismissing centurion Dean Elgar, Kagiso Rabada and Morne Morkel soon after lunch in a dramatic end to the match.

England had laboured to bowl out the South Africans in the morning as Elgar continued his gutsy knock, although Toby Roland-Jones continued his fine debut by dismissing Temba Bavuma and Vernon Philander with successive balls.

Moeen finally ended Elgar’s dogged resistance for a 228-ball 136 and the spinner snapped up Rabada with the last ball of his over, both batsmen caught at slip by man-of-the-match Ben Stokes.

Moeen completed his hattrick with the first ball of his next over, although he had to wait for a review to confirm he had trapped Morkel lbw.

The dismissal sparked wild scenes as the Oval celebrated its first test hat-track in its 100th match - and the first by an English spinner since Tom Goddard in 1938.

“What a way to celebrate 100 tests,” said captain Joe Root.

“The game was really won by the way we batted in the first innings. The lads got stuck in and got a really good score on what proved to be a really challenging surface.”

The touring South African side, who began the day on 117-4, always knew history was against them, with a team starting the final day of a test four wickets down having secured draws only three times.