The innovation that the batters have brought to the sport of cricket has made the sport all the more exciting in recent years. While it could be argued that some of the laws of the game tilt the balance of the sport in favour of the batters, it is equally true that some batters have revolutionized the craft of batsmanship by introducing new strokes which were never thought of, let alone played before.
England all-rounder Moeen Ali, it seemed, tried to execute one such stroke during the third South Africa vs England ODI at the Diamond Oval, Kimberley on Wednesday. While facing spinner Tabraiz Shamsi in the 44th over, Moeen tried to play a one-handed switch kind of a stroke behind the wicketkeeper. However, he failed to connect.
The video of his attempted shot has made its way online.
Talking about the match, England batted first and scored 346/7 with the help of centuries from Dawid Malan (118) and Jos Buttler (131). Moeen too played his part and scored a brisk 41 off 23. In response, South Africa were bowled out for 287, implying a 59-run win by the Three Lions. Jofra Archer's spell (6/40) was also a major positive for England as he takes initial strides post his comeback in international cricket after a long injury layoff.
However, the result was inconsequential as far as the fate of the series is concerned as the Proteas had already sealed the thee-match series by winning the first two matches.
"Nice to finish with a win today, we've played some brilliant cricket apart from the last 10-15 overs of the chase in the first game. Both teams wanted to bowl first, they struck early, then to build a partnership, go on to make 346 after being 20 for 3 was fantastic," England's captain and the Player of the Match and Series, Buttler, said at the post-presentation.
"We thought we'll look to build a partnership, things will get easier at some point, the boundaries weren't big and we knew with the depth we had, the power-hitters, we could make it up later. We haven't had some players out here, Jofra (Archer) was outstanding, both with the new ball and in the back end, the wicket of (Heinrich) Klaasen was the game breaker," he added.