Moeen Ali Bowls England To Victory

England 569-7 dec. & 205-4 dec. beat
India 330 & 178 (Ali 6-67) by 266 runs
Third Test, The Ageas Bowl, Southampton
Scorecard

Moeen Ali's maiden five-wicket haul bowled England to a 266-run win over India on the final day of the third Test at The Ageas Bowl in Southampton.

India began the day at 112 for four, bidding to save the game after being set an unlikely target of 445 to win, but quickly subsided to be all out for 178.

Only Ajinkya Rahane, unbeaten on 52, showed the sort of patience required as Ali added the scalps of Ravindra Jadeja (15), Bhuvneshwar Kumar (0), Mohammad Shami (0) and Pankaj Singh (9) to those of Cheteshwar Pujara and Virat Kohli to return figures of six for 67.

James Anderson - just as he did on the morning of day four - did the early damage by having both Rohit Sharma and MS Dhoni caught behind for six runs apiece.

England have now levelled the five-match series at 1-1 ahead of the fourth Test at Old Trafford and tasted victory in a Test match for the first time in 11 matches.

The last time they won a Test was against Australia in Chester-le-Street last August.

It did not take long for them to make inroads once play got underway and India had not added a run when Sharma edged Anderson to Buttler outside off-stump.

Less than four overs later, Dhoni followed with the same combination doing the trick for the home side, Anderson delivering a swinging delivery and Buttler gobbling up the edge as Dhoni tried to defend.

Rahane, who faced 112 balls and looked secure in the middle, then added 32 with Jadeja for the seventh wicket before a double-wicket maiden from Ali hurried England towards their win.

Jadeja paid a high price for trying to drive against the spin, inside-edging onto his stumps before Kumar inside-edged onto his pad to be caught by Anderson behind the wicket.

Mohammad Shami tried to play some big shots but faled to connect and was bowled by a quicker delivery that took out his leg-stump.

Rahane then reached his half-century and Pankaj Singh struck a couple of boundaries as they delayed the inevitable before Ali bowled Pankaj with one that went straight on.

While Ali finished with six for 67, man of the match Anderson returned two for 24 to go with his first-innings haul of five for 53 and Joe Root took one for five.

For England, this was the perfect riposte to a 95-run defeat at Lord's that put India 1-0 up in a series that began with a tame high-scoring draw at Trent Bridge.

With six days to go until the third Test begins at Old Trafford, England will enjoy their break more than India, who were beaten in every single session of this match.

© Cricket World 2014