It’s Seventh Heaven for Eoin’s men
Proteas thrashing shows we can win Champions Trophy, says star Moeen
MOEEN ALI insists England’s belief they can finally conquer the world in one-day cricket and win the Champions Trophy this summer has been fired by their demolition of South Africa at Headingley on Wednesday.
Moeen’s man-of-the-match display in Leeds – including a stunning 51-ball 77 – helped England to a seventh successive ODI win as the world’s No1-ranked side were crushed by 72 runs.
Eoin Morgan’s men know if they secure victory in each of their next seven matches they will have won their country’s first global 50-over title.
England have two more matches against the Proteas over the Bank Holiday weekend before the start of their Champions Trophy campaign against Bangladesh at The Oval on Thursday.
There will then be two more group matches against New Zealand and Australia before a potential semi-final and final. And asked if England could go on another seven-game run and create history, Moeen said: “We’ve got the team that is capable of doing that. We’re only 1-0 up with two games to go [against South Africa] but it’s a great start to the summer.”
England will be keen to maintain their momentum in the next two matches against South Africa at Southampton tomorrow and Lord’s on Monday, even if winning them is not essential to their Champions Trophy hopes.
But the memory of throwing away a 2-0 series lead the last time they encountered AB De Villiers’ team in South Africa last year is motivating an England side who believe they have developed a steely ruthless streak since then.
Among their achievements in the 15 months that have elapsed since that series was scoring an ODI world-record 444-3 against Pakistan at Trent Bridge last August. England’s 339-6 on Wednesday was also the highest ODI total at Headingley.
“We’re definitely much better than that last South Africa series,” said Moeen. “Even on Wednesday I had one over left to bowl and ‘Morgy’ wanted to be ruthless and win the game as quickly as we could.
“It just shows we’re the type of team that doesn’t want to give anything to the opposition. We’re moving in the right direction going into the Champions Trophy, definitely.
“We’re that kind of team now – we like winning and we want to break records. This was the highest score ever here. We want to keep doing things like that because we’ve been doing it for the last couple of years now.”