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It was the 100th Test at The Oval and England’s bearded spinner, Moeen Ali, made it even more historic by taking the venue’s first hat-trick.
Ali’s was the 43rd hat-trick in Test history, the 14th for England, and the first by an English spinner for 79 years.
His final wicket saw England earn 239-run victory to lead the series 2-1 with one more Test to go.
A fighting 136 by opening batsman Dean Elgar had South Africa 7-252. But Ali dismissed Elgar and new batsman Kagiso Rabada off his fifth and sixth delivery in his 16th over.
After a maiden over from man of the match Ben Stokes from the other end, Moeen trapped Morne Morkel LBW with the first ball of his 17th over. After field umpire declared Morkel not out, England reviewed and the TV umpire said “out”.
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The first ever Test hat-trick was taken 138 years ago by Australia’s Fred ‘Demon’ Spofforth, against England at the MCG, on January 2, 1879.
Moeen’s hat-trick was not performed in one over, but it was not as far apart as those by West Indies quickie Courtney Walsh and Australia’s moustached folk hero Merv Hughes.
In November-December 1988, they performed prolonged and agonising hat-tricks in successive Tests, in Brisbane and Perth, in the Frank Worrell Trophy.
Walsh’s was quirky, as neither his teammates nor opponents realised he had taken a hat-trick in the 1988 Brisbane Test until a few minutes later!
The Windie’s first wicket was Australia’s Tony Dodemaide being caught by Vivian Richards for 22. It was Richards’ 100th catch in his 100th Test and Australia was all out for 167 on November 18, 1988.
The tourists replied with 394, a handy lead of 227 runs. At 2-65 in Australia’s second innings on November 20, Walsh came on to bowl and Mike Veletta pulled his first ball to mid-on to be caught by Carl Hooper for 10.
Walsh’s second ball found Graeme Wood – Veletta’s brother-in-law – LBW for a duck.
Next man in was skipper Allan Border, determined not to get out first ball to avoid a hat-trick. Belatedly it dawned on the players – aided by a public announcement – that Walsh had already achieved the feat; his three victims in three balls being Dodemaide (two days earlier), Veletta and Wood!
Hughes ended the Windies first innings by having Curtly Ambrose caught by Ian Healy with the last ball of his 36th over and Patrick Patterson caught by Dodemaide with the first ball of his next over, which ended the visitors’ innings at 449 on December 3.
Border declared Australia’s innings closed at 8-395 after Geoff Lawson, wearing a visorless helmet, lost sight of a lifting ball from Ambrose, which shattered his jaw, infuriating Hughes.
His first ball of the innings trapped the Windies’ opening batsman, Gordon Greenidge, LBW, which gave the moustachioed Merv a unique hat-trick spanning two days, two innings and three overs.
Despite taking 5-130 and 8-87 he was a sad man as Australia lost the Test by 169 runs. All the same, Hughes was proud that his hat-trick was the first one in a Perth Test, although he did not celebrate the feat that night, saying, “That will look good on my record but there are more important things to worry about. There is a teammate in hospital.”