Moeen plays hardest innings of his career
He expects English spinners will also cause trouble to Tigers
Sports Reporter, Ctg
England batsman Moeen Ali termed the 68 runs that he scored yesterday on the opening day of the first Test against Bangladesh as hardest in his career so far.
Moeen Ali survived five times on video reviews to help England steer through a nervy period as Bangladesh had reeling them on 21 for three.
Today was the hardest 60 Ive ever made, he was honest in his opinion. They bowled well. They bowled very accurately. And its not just about surviving, its about scoring runs. Its tough. They set good fields.
But he was happy to overcome the mental challenge that faced.
They were dirty runs today. It was a massive mental challenge especially with the reviews. I kept missing the ball and it hit my pad. I couldnt figure out why. It was a good mental challenge.
Rooty (Joe Root) said I wasnt out on both of them. I felt I had a little nick on the sweep. You have the reviews to take so its not luck. The way I was set up, I was trying to bat on off stump or on middle and off, so theres less chance of me being out lbw.
While umpire gave him out thrice, all of which off Shakib Al Hasan delivery, Mushfiqur took two reviews against him. Moeen however had no complain about umpire Kumar Dharmasena.
Moeen believed that his side is in decent position, specially the way the wicket is behaving.
We said at one point that 250 might even be a good score, but Jonny (Bairstow) and myself had a crucial partnership and Joe (root) gave us a good start. We are going to have to be quite greedy tomorrow, and hopefully get close to 300, he said. The all-rounder also revealed that it is going to be spin so much but he was sure that Bangladesh would open the bowling with a spinner.
I thought they might open with a spinner but I didnt think it was going to spin as much. You saw the new ball it spun straight away. And its not easy to play against. Especially the new ball, as not every ball spins. After that it spun but more regularly which makes it a bit easier.
Since England have with three spinners in the squad, Moeen believed they would also take the advantage from here to leave Bangladesh in a state of confusion.
They bowled really well, they were very accurate and I think that will be the key for us as well. We have Batty, myself and Rashid who hopefully can bowl these guys out. Theres a lot of pressure on us to deliver on these wickets and with the winter ahead we are going to have to get used to that pressure. I made my mistakes in the UAE and hopefully I wont make them again.
