Moeen falls victim to faulty line
‘We used the last home Ashes as a plan. They can expect more short stuff now’
armpit, with the final one looping down to short third man.
England’s strength has been their tail in recent years. But without Ben Stokes they are exposed. His absence pushes Moeen Ali up the order and in Stokes’s place comes Ball. Jonny Bairstow was denied promotion to Stokes’s place at six to shepherd the tail but his second innings misjudgement shows how little faith he has in them to stay with him for long, forcing him to take risks.
“When we have lost wickets at the top, the lower order has contributed quite a lot and we end up getting a big score but here it has cost us a lot in both innings,” admitted Moeen. “It is more the top six, seven guys, we have to score big hundreds in Australia on good pitches to put them under pressure.” Moeen Ali was involved in the first moment of umpiring controversy of the series when he was given out stumped thanks to the fact the popping crease line had not been painted properly.
Various angles of Moeen’s dismissal proved inconclusive but third umpire Chris Gaffaney felt there was not enough evidence to prove his boot had crept back inside the crease.
Where England will be angry is the fact the line on the popping crease was bulging due to careless running repairs by the ground staff. The painted line was thicker on the cut pitch than it was either side, which meant Moeen had a few more millimetres to move his foot back to get something in his crease. It made the crucial difference in a pivotal dismissal. England were 155 for five, 129 runs ahead with Moeen and Jonny Bairstow rebuilding.
Moeen looked confident he was in the clear, and the Australia team also appeared to expect him to be given not out as the replays were shown on the big screen. “I disagree with that decision,” said former captain Michael Clarke on Channel 9. “I thought he had something behind the line and I thought the benefit of the doubt had to go to the batsman.”