Moeen Ali: 5 highlights from an enterprising career

Back in the day when England were not the dynamite white ball side they are now, when they filled their batting line-up with reliable Test batsmen, slotted bits and pieces all-rounders and employed the "specialist" finger-spin of the likes of Danny Briggs and James Tredwell, little did they know that the introduction of one sturdy fellow will turn their fates around.

Moeen Ali, brought in to revolutionize an obsolete English side, was not effective right away with the team management themselves not too sure what to do with him, they would make him bat right at the top of the order and would field him as the standalone spinner in the squad, the responsibilities Moeen simply was not ready for. But post the debacle of 2015, Moeen, the survivor of the mass axings found a niche for himself and began to impact the performances of his side in subtle but mighty effective ways.

Four years on from his debut in 2014, Ali, the once shy and rather sheepish Birmingham lad, is now one of the more expressive cricketers on the field and remains the main reason behind England's resurgence in the one-dayers and their much-awaited balance in the test side.

On his 31st birthday, we look at the five best moments from the all-rounder's illustrious career.

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#5 119(87) vs Sri Lanka in Colombo, 2014

In his first five ODIs, Ali had passed 40 thrice but had never gone beyond 67, thus earning some harsh criticism from the English media for being one of the typical ineffective ODI cricketers who manage to score just enough to retain their places in the side. A relatively slow starter, he was reinstated into his initial role of opener in absence of an injured Alex Hales, he surprised everyone with a firecracker of an innings.

In the series opener, England were chasing a daunting Sri Lankan total of 317. On an increasingly wearing pitch where the ball was gripping on the surface and stroke-play was not easy, Moeen raced to fifty off just 25 balls, the then second fastest by an Englishman. Wickets tumbled around him but he was undeterred and continued to play solely in the pursuit of the required run rate, with the notable part being that never did he play low percentage strokes.

With the spin trio of Ajantha Mendis, Tilakratne Dilshan and Rangana Herath all testing him in uncountable ways, he decided to take the aerial route and reached 100 off just 72 balls. Though he got with his team 114 runs short, keep in mind that he had scored 59.5% of the runs at a rate 161% time of his team's, laced with 11 fours and 5 sixes.

England fell 25 runs short in the end but this innings was the making of Moeen Ali.

72(46)* and 1-0-3-1 vs Australia in Cardiff, 2015

After a resounding redemption through the home series win against New Zealand and the Ashes regained in terrific fashion, T20s were still an area England had to improve in. A star-studded Australian side, still hurting from the loss in the tests, made for the perfect-on-paper match up when their low confidence was thrown into the mix.

Rapid opening spells by Mitch Starc and Pat Cummins, including a double-wicket over by the latter, left England tottering at 2/18, after four overs of the valuable phase of the powerplay. Many a time, this is where teams lose the matches. Ali joined hands with skipper Eoin Morgan and put up a mammoth third-wicket stand of 135 in just 74 balls.

Ali played sensibly, playing out the heat of Cummins and later Nathan Coulter-Nile and then attacked the relatively less skilled bowling of rookie Cameron Boyce, Marcus Stoinis, and Mitch Marsh. He played through the innings and took England to 5/182.

Not content, he returned to hurt Australia in the second dig. Cruising at 2/124 in 13 overs, Steve Smith and Glenn Maxwell threatened to do the job too easily for the Aussies. Ali drew a miscue from Maxwell in his first ball of the match and gave away just three runs. The required rate drew close to 10 an over and England clawed their way back to a win.

#3 87, 4/59 and 7, 6/53 vs South Africa in London, 2017

Coming from a three-format wipeout on their tour of India in 2016/17, especially a 4-0 drubbing in the five-match test series English hopes were gloomier than the skies over Lord's on the opening day of the first test of the 2017 season. Up against was a South African side, hurting from their previous year's humiliation at home by England in the four-match test series.

Ali, too, was under considerable pressure with underwhelming performances in both the departments. The stage was set for a perfect comeback. Walking out to bat at 5/190, and the trio of Kagiso Rabada, Vernon Philander and big Morne Morkel piling on the pressure, Moeen curbed his attacking instincts and played second fiddle to Joe Root, who scored a magnificent 190. He put up 177 on the board with Root and thus drove England to safety. Ali persisted to accumulate 46 runs with Stuart Broad and got out at the Devil's fated score of 87.

In the first innings of South Africa, he took four wickets, significantly, three of those dismissals were of batsmen in their fifties and looking in for a stubborn stay. But the real heroics came in the fourth innings of the match. Set a target of 331, South Africa were a side who could pull it off, even they crumbled to 119 all out in little over a session as Ali exploited the drying pitch and the rough patches around the off-stump.

Bowling the tight lines of a stock off-spinner, Ali sent six of the Proteas packing to collect career-best match figures of 10/112.

#2 102(57) vs Windies in Bristol, 2017

England v West Indies - 3rd Royal London One Day International

In this performance, Ali showed yet another side of his. He was always known to be an attacking player but in the context of being one who relied on stroke making, superlatives were not his arena.

The perception changed.

At 6/217 in 34 overs, things did not look good for England as they were setting a target for a Caribbean line-up featuring the unforgiving ferocity of Chris Gayle and Evil Lewis, an uber-confident Shai Hope, and the ever-unpredictable Marlon Samuels, all to bat on the small dimensioned County Ground at Bristol.

Moeen Ali showed his many gears as he first took his side to safety with ten overs of damage control, and then suddenly switched to gears many did not even know existed. He took 24 from 5 balls from each of Miguel Cummins' and Jason Holder's consecutive overs and before anyone knew, he had moved from a sedate 37(37)* to 85(47)*.

He reached three figures in 53 balls, the second fastest for England. And out of nowhere, England had an imposing 9/369 on the board, a score which was always going to be out of Windies' reach as they slumped to a 124 run loss.

#1 77, 2/71 and 15, 3/59 vs Australia in Cardiff

Joe Root scored more runs in the match, Stuart Broad took as many wickets for fewer runs and Alastair Cook was the one who rotated the bowlers to perfection and got the fields right, what stands out in Moeen's performance that would make it the best of his career?

Well, firstly, the context of the match. The Australian side facing England in the opening Ashes encounter had eight of the eleven players who had featured in the whitewash of 2013/14. Except for Josh Hazlewood and Adam Voges, everyone was a seasoned campaigner in international cricket. The task ahead of England was intimidating, and the memories and the scars from Brisbane and Adelaide in 2013, even more so.

In England's first dig, Ali played a counter-attacking gem against the heat of the two Mitchells, despite questions surrounding his effectiveness against the short delivery, and Hazlewood, he did not shy from stepping down the ground against Lyon and never allowed Watson to settle on his nagging lengths. A brisk 77 from 88 balls not only prevented a lower order collapse but also made sure England got a crack at Australia in good time.

He then eked out the prized wickets of Steve Smith, who was in the richest form of his life, and Smith's remarkable is the world's extraordinary, and Australia's best player of spin Michael Clarke by beating them both through a change of line. Had he not gotten them out in middling scores, they might have gone on to take the charge of the match.

In the fourth innings, he notably pinned an on-song David Warner in front of the stumps and thus prevented any chances of a miraculous Australian recovery, giving England the perfect impetus to go on to take a 1-0 lead and later regain the urn.