Moeen Ali showed that even the oldest dog can learn new tricks as he tried to introduce a new ‘Forehand Switch’ into the cricket vocabulary.
Midway through his thrilling cameo of 41 from just 23 balls in Kimberley the 35-year-old, and oldest member of the England team, tried a one handed shot that wouldn’t have looked out of place in the Rod Laver Arena.
With the left arm wrist spin of Tabraiz Shamsi turning the ball into his pads, the reverse sweep or switch hit was a good option to hit with the spin. But Moeen went one further and simply tried to hit the ball as if he had a racquet and it was a right handed topspin forehand.
The fact he missed the ball by some distance and looked surprisingly ungainly for such a silky and classy player suggests that he may not be bringing the shot out again any time soon.
He rapidly returned to his more traditional method of striking the ball and deposited Shamsi back over his head for one of his four sixes.
In what has been a good series for Moeen with the bat, he helped turn a promising score into a mammoth one with his clean hitting to build on the record-breaking partnership between Dawid Malan and Jos Buttler.
Buttler usually brings out an unorthodox scoop or ramp shot during an innings, but this time it was Moeen who tried the spectacular, and sadly it failed.
Moeen's quick-fire 41 was a crucial cameo for England, helping propel them to 346-7 after they were reduced to 14-3 in the sixth over by some excellent new ball bowling from Lungi Ngidi.
