Moeen Ali warmed up for England’s forthcoming ODI Series against Sri Lanka with a three wicket burst today.
The Worcestershire all-rounder was back in action just eight days after the end of the 2018 domestic season and soon made an impact against the Sri Lanka Board X1 in Colombo in a game England won by 42 runs under the Duckworth-Lewis Method.
Moeen came into the action as first change at 45-0 from seven overs and bowled his allocation of overs in one spell as he ended with figures of 10-0-42-3.
The County’s Vitality Blast captain made a double breakthrough in his second over in dismissing both openers.
Moeen bowled Lahiru Thirimanne (23) to break a stand of 53 and then two balls later, and with one run added, dismissed Dimuth Karunaratne (25) in the same fashion.
The off spinner struck again when he trapped Kusal Mendis (22) lbw at 107-3 in the 22nd over.
Moeen came out of the attack at 132-4 after 26 overs but skipper Dinesh Chandimal (77) and Kamindu Mendis (61) lifted the home side to 287-9 in their 50 overs.
Ben Stokes (2-33) and Mark Wood (2-38) both picked up two wickets.
England reached 215-2 off 35.3 overs to seal victory with Joe Root (90) and skipper Eoin Morgan (91) adding an unbroken 174 for the third wicket.
