Moeen Ali joins England hat-trick club

LONDON: Moeen Ali became just the 13th England cricketer to take a Test-match hat-trick when he ended the third Test against South Africa with three wickets in as many balls at The Oval on Monday.

The Worcestershire off-spinner’s treble saw him snare Dean Elgar and Kagiso Rabada with the aid of two slip catches by Ben Stokes at the end of his 16th over, before he had Morne Morkel lbw on review with the first ball of his next.

Morkel’s dismissal ended the match after lunch on the fifth day, with England winning by 239 runs to go 2-1 up in this four-Test series.

Read More: Moeen Ali sends South Africa spinning to first Test defeat

It was the first time in more than a hundred years that a Test had ended with a hat-trick, with Australia off-spinner Hugh Trumble the last bowler to finish a match at this level in similar fashion, against England at Melbourne in 1902.

Ali’s hat-trick was also the first in The Oval’s 100-Test history — which dates back to 1880 — and the first by an England spinner since Tom Goddard’s against South Africa at Johannesburg in 1938.

In all there have been 14 England Test hat-tricks, with paceman Stuart Broad — a current team-mate of Ali — having twice performed the feat.

England Test hat-tricks (season, player, opposition, venue):

1882/83 Billy Bates v AUS Melbourne

1891/92 Johnny Briggs v AUS Sydney

1895/96 George Lohmann v RSA Port Elizabeth

1899 Jack Hearne v AUS Headingley

1929/30 Maurice Allom v NZL Christchurch

1938/39 Tom Goddard v RSA Johannesburg

1957 Peter Loader v WIS Headingley

1995 Dominic Cork v WIS Old Trafford

1998/99 Darren Gough v AUS Sydney

2003/04 Matthew Hoggard v WIS Barbados

2007/08 Ryan Sidebottom v NZL Hamilton

2011 Stuart Broad v IND Trent Bridge

2014 Stuart Broad v SRI Headingley

2017 Moeen Ali v RSA The Oval

Match-ending Test hat-tricks (season, player, country, opposition, venue):

1895/96 George Lohmann ENG v RSA Port Elizabeth

1901/02 Hugh Trumble AUS v ENG Melbourne

2017 Moeen Ali ENG v RSA The Oval