The English team was looking forward their former skipper Alastair Cook scoring a century in his farewell Test after he was dropped on 37 by Virat Kohli at the second slip off Jasprit Bumrah. Similar thoughts were portrayed by the English all-rounder Moeen Ali during the press conference after the stumps on Day 1 of the final Test at the Oval on Friday.
Cook was later dismissed by Bumrah for 71 and Ishant dismissed Moeen for 50 after their 73-run partnership for the second wicket partnership which led the foundation to a solid total. The pitch played slow, but India’s pacers were relentless with the old ball.
Talking about the same, Ali said, “You’re always hoping to let them bowl and bowl. But they just kept coming, bowling same pace, same areas. It was one of the best bowling attacks I’ve faced. They were just always, consistently there. When he got dropped I just said ‘it was meant to be for you’. They bowled really well. The wicket was quite slow, but the ball was always doing something, so I just tried to stay as patient as I could. The Indian bowlers didn’t give me a lot to hit. So I just tried to bat. I don’t always play like that, but we were in a decent position.”
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Moeen was given another chance at the No 3 and faced 170 balls for his 50. When he got to the dressing room at tea, his teammates pulled his leg. It was Mohammed Shami, who trouble Ali the most during his batting, he said, “I probably wasn’t good enough to nick them. When I went into tea, the guys were calling me Geoffrey Boycott. Then they came in, played and missed their first ball, and I was pretty happy with that.”
Ahead of this series, Ali wasn’t been able to make his cut into the team after a terrible performance against Australia and New Zealand but made a great comeback at Southampton. He now keeps of the social media to focus more on his young family.
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Talking about his comeback, Moeen said, “I just feel like you spend so much time on there. I caught myself doing that when my little one wanted a kick around, and that’s when I decided. It’s good, because I’m hardly on my phone now. I can live without it. A lot of people out there are on social media and that’s fine, but I just spent so much time on my phone I just had enough.”
Ali concluded by talking about finding the replacement of Cook, he said that it will be difficult as a player will come and try to replace the opener. However, he also asserted that the collapses are the last thing a team wants.
