[Moeen Ali is engulfed by his team-mates after striking Morne Morkel on the pad (Photo: Kirsty Wigglesworth/AP]
London: Moeen Ali on Monday became the thirteenth Englishman to take a hat-trick in a Test match as he took the last three wickets of the South African innings to guide the hosts to a massive 239-run win in the third Test at the Kensington Oval.
The victory puts England 2-1 up in the four-match series with the last Test starting on August 4 at the Old Trafford in Manchester.
South Africa were on the brink of defeat on the final day but were kept afloat by some dogged resistance from left-handed opening batsman Dean Elgar, who faced 228 deliveries to score 136 runs in what was a classical Test knock. But Elgar's resistance was broken by Ali, who forced the southpaw to drive outside the off stump, resulting in an outside edge that was caught at first slip by Ben Stokes.
Ali's next victim was Kagiso Rabada, who too was caught at first slip by Stokes for a golden duck. Last man Morne Morkel was the next to go as he was trapped in front of the wicket. The appeal was overturned by the field umpire, but England captain Joe Root went for the DRS and was rewarded as the ball was going on to hit the stumps.
Ali completed his hat-trick and thus became only the third man in Test history to seal victory with a hat-trick and the first for 115 years. Stuart Broad is the only English cricketer to have taken two Test hat-tricks.
"Moeen Ali's hat-trick is the first in Test cricket with 3 left-handed batsmen as victims", Andrew Samson @AWSStats tweeted after the match.
In his reaction after the match, David Gower wrote on Twitter, The first time since 1902 that a match has ended with a hat-trick to win it, too."
"Match ending Test hat-tricks:
G Lohmann Eng v SA Port Elizabeth 1896
H Trumble Aus v Eng Melbourne 1902
M Ali Eng v SA Oval 2017...." Gower wrote on Twitter.
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