Sport Double joy for Ali as England take command

MOEEN Ali had a day to remember as he notched up 2,000 runs and 100 wickets in Tests as England assumed control against South Africa at Lord’s.

The all-rounder scored 87 to help England to a first-innings total of 458 before he took two key wickets as the tourists closed the second day of the first Test on 214 for five.

That made him only the seventh player from his country and second-quickest behind Tony Greig to reach the elite double benchmark. For good measure, he became the only man to round up the statistics in each column on the same day.

“I feel very grateful and pleased to have those stats,” he said. “When I started, if someone would have told me I was going to have these stats, I would have bitten their hands off. It’s a great feeling to do it on the same day at Lord’s.”

Moeen was able to produce some big turn which helped him to the key wickets of Dean Elgar and Hashim Amla.

The off-spinner admits that he had gone into his shell with the ball in his hand over the last 12 months and was keen to rectify that.

“There has been lots of ups and downs and with the ball it feels like I have been learning on the job,” he added. “I am going to have bad days I know that, I am still inconsistent but today I was really happy with the way I bowled.

“I was trying to give it really good revs and look to take wickets, something that I used to do when I first started. I have tried to bowl a little bit safe in the last year or so but today was the first day where I had that attacking mindset.”

On his form with the bat, he added: “I just go out and play my natural game and I don’t think about the scoreboard too much I just react to the ball.

“I prep hard and I don’t really think about it too much. I was a little bit disappointed but I would have taken 87 at the start.”