Moeen Ali continued his successful return to Test cricket with a five wicket haul for England on the second day of the fourth Test with India at the Ageas Bowl.
The Worcestershire all-rounder ended with figures of 16-1-63-5 as he continued the form he had been demonstrating at County level during the past few weeks.
Moeen had already made a quickfire impression yesterday with a crucial 40 in helping rescue England – alongside Sam Curran – from 86-6 to a final total of 246.
Today he wreaked havoc with the ball in completing his five five-for at Test level in what is his 51st match.
Moeen initially was brought into the attack for the final over before lunch and bowled a spell of 6-1-22-0.
But it was his return just before tea that brought a flurry of wickets.
First to go was Rishabh Pant for a 29 ball duck – trapped leg before.
Then in Moeen’s next over Hardik Pandya (4) was well caught by skipper Joe Root at short mid wicket.
His County team-mate, Ravichandran Ashwin (1) and Mohammed Shami (0) departed to successive balls in the next.
Ashwin went for a reverse sweep and bottom edged the ball onto his stumps and then Shami played down the wrong line and was also bowled.
Ishant Sharma surived the hat-trick ball to the first delivery of the next over.
But after making 14, he became Moeen’s fifth victim when caught by Alastair Cook at short leg after the ball inside edged onto the pad.
India were eventually dismissed for 273 – a lead of 27 – and England reached 6-0 by the close.
