Ashes 2015: Moeen Ali picks up wicket of Steve Smith just before tea
Thursday 9 July 2015 19:07, UK
Moeen Ali struck just before tea, with the crucial wicket of Steve Smith for 33, to reduce Australia to 145-2.
Moeen had early hit 77 as England added 87 runs to their overnight score in the first Investec Ashes Test match, finishing their first innings on 430 all out.
Mitchell Starc (5-114) took five wickets, to shrug off an injury scare from day one which saw him leave the field with an ankle problem.
James Anderson picked up England’s first wicket, as David Warner (17) edged to Alastair Cook at first slip, but Australia began positive in their reply, going at four runs an over, with Chris Rogers (74no) in particular playing very nicely.
England started the second day at Cardiff on 343-7, with Moeen unbeaten on 26 and Stuart Broad yet to get off the mark, but it was Broad who started the brighter - first driving Josh Hazlewood for four and then pulling him for six in the second over of the day.
Broad almost fell to Mitchell Johnson on 11 though, when he gloved a sharp bouncer to Adam Voges at short-leg, but the catch was shown to have been grounded on replay.
It denied Johnson the breakthrough to answer his critics in the crowd who gleefully celebrated when the number of runs he had conceded in the Test passed 100.
Moeen meanwhile was starting to play fluently at the other end, with some crisp cover drives helping him through to fifty, off just 69 balls.
With the fifty partnership between the pair also up, Australia turned to the off-spin of Nathan Lyon, and he struck first ball, as Broad edged an attempted slog-sweep to Brad Haddin.
Moeen then showed Broad how it should have been done, dispatching Lyon through deep midwicket with a slog-sweep later in the same over to bring up England’s 400.
Moeen added a couple more boundaries - including one that just managed to evade Johnson's grasp at mid-off, again to the crowd's delight - before edging an attempted drive off Starc to Shane Watson at slip.
Starc soon added a fifth wicket to his haul, beating Anderson all ends up with a full, fast swinging yorker to end England's innings, all out for 430.
Australia’s openers survived a tricky nine-over spell before lunch although Broad - bowling brightly in his opening spell - had a couple of loud shouts for lbw against both.
The first to Warner was not reviewed, with it looking like it pitched outside leg-stump, but the one to Rogers a few balls later was reviewed despite it also appearing to pitch outside leg and clipping his bat.
Broad struggled for the same control with his line and length after the interval, and Warner punished him with two fours in the first over after lunch.
Soon after Australia reached fifty though. Anderson, continuing a probing line outside of Warner's off-stump, drew a loose drive from the left-hander and Cook took a terrific diving catch at slip.
Cook was in the thick of the action again just three balls later as Steve Smith edged Anderson, but the ball fell just short of Cook this time, striking him in the groin on the bounce.
Rogers kept the scoreboard ticking over at the other end, very comfortably going through to 50 off just 74 balls, and contributing 33 runs to the fifty-partnership between him and Smith.
Smith soon got into the act though, sweetly striking three fours off one Moeen over, dancing down the track to the pitch of the ball and dispatching the ball down the ground.
But just as Smith looked to be growing in confidence, he looped a leading edge off Moeen to Cook at a very short mid-on when again looking to use his feet.
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