On this day in 2017: Moeen Ali takes the first-ever Test hat-trick at The Oval
One of England’s top all-rounders Moeen Ali has always produced some special knocks in international cricket time to time. He is more than just a fifth bowler in the setup and can play anywhere in the batting order from the top to the lower middle-order. With such versatility, Moeen remains one of the most valuable assets for England and on this day in 2017, he picked up what was the first ever Test hat-trick at the Oval.
In the third Test, England elected to bat first after winning the toss and they scored 353 in the first innings on the back of Ben Stokes’ brilliant century. In reply, the Proteas could manage just 175 in their first innings and conceded a lead of more than 150. In the second innings, the hosts got to 313 for 8 and declared to set a total of 492 for the visitors to win.
Moeen was yet to make any significant contribution up to the third innings, as he got failures with the bat and did not pick up a wicket in the first innings with the bat. However, he made up for it in the second innings with a brilliant spell on the final day. Toby Roland Jones picked up three wickets, however it was Moeen who cleaned up the tail in a quick session.
Moeen picked up the big wicket of centurion Dean Elgar in the fifth delivery of the 76th over. On the very next delivery, Moeen dismissed Kagiso Rabada for a golden duck. With nine wickets down for South Africa, Moeen picked up the final wicket of his next over to complete a historic hattrick at the venue as England won the Test by 239 runs to lead the four match Test series 2-1.
