Three Muslims part of playing XI, make history in English cricket

English cricket made history as three Muslims for the first time were the part of playing eleven against South Africa.

As per details, Moeen Ali and Adil Rashid were part of the playing eleven with Lancashire pacer Saqib Mahmood making his ODI debut for England.

Interestingly all Muslims are of Pakistani-Kashmiri origin, with Moeen hailing from Birmingham, Adil from Bradford and Saqib, who was born in Birmingham and raised in Rochdale to parents who emigrated from Pakistan.

England won the match by two wickets to level the series 1-1 with all three players playing a part in the victory.

Batting first the Proteas scored 256-7 in their 50 overs. Saqib opened the bowling for England and picked up a wicket conceding 17 runs in five overs. South Africa’s Reeza Hendricks was Saqib’s first scalp in ODIs.

On the other hand, England’s spinning bowling duo Moeen and Adil playing together for the first time since the World Cup July last year, bowled their quota of 10 overs each. Moeen picked up one wicket for 42 while Adil picked up three wickets for 51 runs.

For South Africa Quinton de Kock and David Miller scoring 69 runs each to post 256-7.

England achieved the target of 257 for the loss of eight wickets in 44th over.

Jonny Bairstow scored a quickfire 43, while Joe Root and Joe Denly scored 49 and 66 respectively.

Towards the end England lost four quick wickets for 20 runs, however, Moeen Ali steered the ship home with a cool 17 runs, to level the ODI series 1-1.

Adil named man of the match for his figures of 3-51 in 10 overs.

England and South Africa will now play a three T20I starting Wednesday.

Saqib Mahmood and Moeen, Adil also part of England’s T20I squad.