Moeen Ali made another vital contribution to England’s cause with an unbeaten 67 off just 59 balls on the third day of the final Test with South Africa at Old Trafford.
The Worcestershire all-rounder came to the crease at 134-6 and his boundary blitz – three sixes and eight fours – had lifted England to 224-8 before rain halted play – a lead of 360.
The 30-year-old had a slice of good fortunes at the very start of his innings when he inside edged Olivier for four and was then dropped at slip by Dean Elgar off spinner Keshav Maharaj.
But then Moeen launched a scoring blitz against the latter and raced to his half century off 49 alls with a straight six off Maharaj which was caught on the players balcony by Jonny Bairstow.
Moeen said: “I just felt with the situation in the game, we needed a bit of momentum. It came off for me.
“I had a couple of chances but it was niceto play like that today.
“I went in and was just thinking about defending but sometimes you can be a bit of a sitting duck and I backed myself and thankfully it paid off.”
It was Moeen’s second half century of the series after his 87 at Lord’s in addition to 20 wickets so during the series.
