Southampton: England captain Alastair Cook on Thursday praised Moeen Ali and said the part-time spinner had improved in “leaps and bounds” — thanks to his stint with Worcestershire where he bowls with Pakistan off-spinner Saeed Ajmal.
Moeen Ali produced a match-winning spell, taking six wickets as India were bowled out for 178 in their second innings, handing England a 266-run win in the third cricket Test at The Rose Bowl here on Thursday.
With the comprehensive win, England tied the five-match series 1-1.
“The team from 1 to 11 have been fantastic. Moeen’s bowling has come on leaps and bounds, credit to him. When you’re bowing behind Ajmal at Worcester and he’s been bowling a lot, responding really well and, on a spinning wicket, to get a six-for, can’t really ask for more,” Cook said at the post-match presentation.
The English opener said that his team won every single session in the match and deserved the win.
“Happy is the word, not relieved. We pretty much won every single session and that credit to the guys. It’s a great win, we wanted to get on that wicket first and to get 570 is a great start and bowled well and batted quickly and knocked them over again,” said Cook.
Cook, though, said that he was frustrated at not reaching the three-figure mark after a 95 in the first innings and an unbeaten 70 in the second.
“I thought my game was heading in the right direction even with 10s and 20s. Frustrating not to get the hundred, but I’d take what I got. Getting back into the ball is vital, I’m pretty good with the short ball. I nicked outside off stump and I had to take care of that. I had to work incredibly hard. Jos Buttler’s been brilliant with his quick runs and his keeping has been great too. Leader of the attack, James Anderson got a couple of wickets to set us off and settle nerves.”
Meanwhile, India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni confirmed that his side’s hero in the historic win at Lord’s, Ishant Sharma, who was ruled out from the third Test, will miss the crucial fourth Test at Manchester starting on August 7.
Ishant was a last-minute omission in the third Test and the injured pacer was replaced by debutant Pankaj Singh, who failed to pick up even a single wicket in the 47 overs he bowled in both the innings.
“Definitely he won’t be fit for the next game,” Dhoni said during the post-match presentation.
“Never really had a discussion with our physio, but as of now he won’t be available for the fourth Test match.”
England’s part-time spinner Moeen Ali was the hero of the day picking up his maiden six-wicket haul but Dhoni put the blame on some poor batting for India’s downfall.
“I don’t think we played good cricket over here but at the same time I think we played the fast bowlers well,” Dhoni said.
“Moeen, I think, bowled well but, still, we let him bowl well. It is very important to be positive against the spinner, especially when there is not much on offer. I think he bowled very good lines. If you keep defending, one odd ball will turn because there is considerable amount of wear and tear on the wicket.”
“There were quite a few [soft dismissals], the phase where Jinks [Rahane] got out, a couple of other wickets that fell, that really had a big impact on the game. It was not only that half an hour, I think even last night, the last session really had a big impact on the game because we lost quite a few wickets, and quite a few of them were quite soft dismissals, and if we were in a good position last night, not losing those two or three wickets, definitely then you look at it in a different way,” said the Indian captain.
