CRACKER JACK HAS PUT POOR MOEEN IN SHADE
One of england’s spin bowlers scored 92 yesterday. The other made just nine. But the chances are that Jack Leach, despite coming within touching distance of an extraordinary hundred as nightwatchman, will be dropped for the first Ashes Test at edgbaston, while Moeen Ali — whose batting has vanished down the plughole — will survive.
This is, of course, not quite as ridiculous as it sounds. Leach is in the side for his left-arm spin, and began this game with a first-class batting average below 11.
Ali has 177 Test wickets and five hundreds.
But to see the two perform yesterday was to see one revelling in the opportunity of a lifetime, and the other fighting an inner battle that shows no sign of ending soon — certainly not in time for Australia on Thursday.
While Leach went way beyond his job description, becoming the fifth england nightwatchman to register a Test-match score in the nineties, Ali was put out of his misery by Boyd Rankin, whose succession of short balls finally induced a timid fiddle.
Ali is a popular member of the side and a perennially endearing cricketer. But his recent form has failed to justify his all-rounder’s billing. Since the start of September 2017, he has averaged 17 in 29 Test innings, with six ducks and six other single-figure scores.
nor has he been making any oneday runs. Since a blistering century against West Indies at Bristol two years ago — an innings that was overshadowed by events later that night outside Mbargo nightclub — he has not made an ODI 50. Midway through the World Cup he was dropped.
Ali has all the batting tools at his disposal, but yesterday Leach made a little go a long way. In 19 first-class innings from the start of england’s tour of Sri Lanka before Christmas and the start of this game, he had reached double figures once. That included his other knock as a Test nightwatchman, when he was out for one in Pallekele. There was plenty of playing and missing against Ireland’s
accurate seamers, and two bad drops. But they came when he had 72 and 92, by which time he had showed off some compact drives.
At one point, when he used his feet to deposit an off-break from Andy McBrine over midwicket, he looked like an actual batsman. And there were groans when Tim Murtagh had him caught at second slip by Mark Adair, three balls after Adair had dropped him. A tailender approaching a hundred is one of those glorious curiosities only cricket can offer.
‘He batted well,’ said Adair. ‘For every ball he played and missed, he played a nice cover drive. That’s taking absolutely nothing away from him.’
It was the kind of performance that must have felt a world away last summer. In Leach’s first game back for Somerset after breaking his thumb in the nets, he was hit on the side of the head by a ball from Surrey’s Morne Morkel. The impact forced out one of the lenses of his glasses, and he missed a couple of weeks with concussion.
‘That was a tough point, and had a knock-on effect on my batting,’ he said. ‘But I’ve worked hard and it’s nice to face Boyd Rankin, someone who gets a lot of bounce, and feel comfortable with that. I felt really focused. That’s something I’ll definitely take forward and keep trying to do.’
Ali must wish he could stumble across his own eureka moment. For now, though, he is relying on his status as england’s spin bowler to see him through the Ashes. Modestly, Leach acknowledged his place in the pecking order.
‘It would be an amazing series to be part of,’ he said. ‘I see myself as a second spinner to Mo. He’s bowled really well for england for a long time now, and I learn a lot from him. If there are dry wickets and they want to play two, that might be where I come into it.’