Throwback: When Moeen Ali’s 53-ball century blew the Windies away

If there was a cricketer who would personify the saying “Looks can be deceiving”, Moeen Ali would be it. His calm demeanour is perfectly deceptive of his belligerent abilities with the bat, his aggressive streak of constantly on the lookout for wickets with the ball. West Indies found that out first hand in 2017.

Walking in to bat when England were in a spot of bother, perhaps risking not making complete use of their quota of 50 overs, half their side back in the hut with almost 18 overs left, Moeen started out unassumingly. He soon lost his partner Joe Root, and England were in trouble, with Moeen Ali their last recognized batsman, who had to shepherd the rest of the innings alongside bowling all-rounders. 

His first 39 balls saw him scoring at a run-a-ball pace. His first 39 balls ensured that the innings was stabilized. By the end of the 44th over, England were out of the murky waters and were now at 276/6. With only 6 overs left in the innings, Moeen decided to break free.

By the time he faced 14 more balls, he had crossed the century mark. If the first 39 balls were to see him scoring as many runs, the next 14 balls yielded 63 runs. To put that into context, the record for the fastest ODI half-century is held by AB De Villiers, and he took 16 balls to get there. Yuvraj Singh’s record for a half-century took him only 12 balls, and he needed 6 sixes in an over to get there. Such was the destruction Moeen left in the wake that England, at one point looking to survive the full 50 overs, ended up scoring 369, and eventually won the game by 214 runs. The innings included 7 fours and 8 sixes.

But Moeen was incredibly modest in the assessment of his innings, attributing it all to luck, as he said in the post-match interviews, calling his innings a "bit of a slog”. The innings is still the third-fastest by an English batsman in ODI cricket history. To this day, Moeen retains the bragging rights in the English dressing room. Post the 17-sixes record set by their skipper Eoin Morgan in the world cup game against Afghanistan, Moeen quipped, "When players go past 53 balls then I can always say 'yeah, it's a great knock but still a bit slow for my liking.' I'm always hoping they don't push me further down the list."