Moeen Ali takes six in easy win over South Africa A

Moeen Ali claimed six wickets as England beat South Africa A by an innings and 91 runs on the final morning of their tour match.

The spinner claimed 6-77 as the home side were bowled out for 187.

I have always found Moeen to be a harmless spinner who is only good at containing runs. I think the South Africans have been mentally scarred by the sand pits in India and they have developed this fear of spin that they would have to shake off quickly or they would end up giving a bag full of wickets to the harmless English spinners who couldn't trouble the Pakistanis in favorable conditions in UAE.

Aint that the truth !  ;D

Whilst this was obviously a good performance by England and especially Moeen, I wouldn't be reading to much in to it to be honest.

Ali can be dangerous but only when he wants to be. This was obviously one of those times.

I'd argue the opposite. Mo is not good at containing runs. He is pretty expensive - in part because he is still learning his trade as a spinner and so bowls that one bad ball an over which gets punished. His economy rate (3.90) in Test matches backs this up.

However, he is a wicket taker. Teams have continually underestimated Mo, and yet he has a habit of taking big wickets. Since making his debut, Moeen has a strike rate of 58.6. Over the last two years, the only spinners with a better strike rate (minimum 6 matches played) are Ashwin, Yasir Shah and Dilruwan Perera. Mo's strike rate is better than Herath, Lyon, Jadeja, Zulfiqar Babar, Shakib Al-Hasan, Imran Tahir, Benn and Bishoo.

I agree Mo is expensive!

For me he is a fantastic batsman who can bowl a bit and trying to make him into a different player will not serve us well.

Mo is wasted at 8 and will, more often than not, not really produce wickets.

Anyway the selectors have a team structure in mind and that is where he currently fits in.

As long as we win and win well, I am happy.

I'd Finn is indeed fit, I would imagine the XI for the first Test would be: Cook, Hales, Compton, Root, Taylor, Stokes, Bairstow, Moeen Ali, Broad, Finn, Anderson

I agree on Mo being somewhat wasted at 8. At the very least I would flip flop Mo and Bairstow in the lineup. My guess is that all involved would prefer Mo to focus on his bowling and not have the added pressure of needing to score runs also. There is also the theory that Mo is a better option to bat with the tail due to his attacking nature.

I just happened to finish reading this article in The Guardian that includes an interview with Mo in which he admits that he needs to work on tying an end up and reducing the number of bad balls bowled each over:

He also touches upon batting at number 8 and the ability to be more attacking when batting lower in the order.

www.theguardian.com/sport/2015/dec/22/en...th-africa-first-test

Seems Jimmy is injured after all and may struggle to be fit enough for the Boxing Day test.

Shame that!