Hope to win next three matches: England's Moeen Ali

Christchurch, Feb 23 (IANS) England opener Moeen Ali, who was adjudged the Man-of-the-Match for his superb ton against Scotland in a Pool A World Cup game here Monday, is hopeful of winning the next three matches and making it to the quarterfinals.

England had lost their first two games against Australia and New Zealand. But Monday witnessed a different England side who staged a much improved performance against the Scots. 

Put into bat, Ali (128) took apart the Scotland attack almost single-handedly. The English innings was also boosted by knocks from Ian Bell (54) and captain Eoin Morgan (46) who helped post a formidable total of 303 on the scoreboard.

The England bowlers then came out and kept the Scottish batsmen on a leash before bowling them out for 184, handing the three-lions a victory by 119 runs.

“Thank god for winning the game and hopefully we can win the next three in a row,” Ali said at the post-match presentation ceremony.

The left-hander said it was a tough wicket to bat on and added that it felt nice to get some runs under his belt as he hopes to continue his run of form in the next few matches.

“Nice to spend time in the middle and get through first 10 overs. It was not an easy pitch to start, takes a bit of time to play some shots but we did well to score over 300," the 27-year-old said.

"At one time I thought of maybe 330-340 but it was not an easy pitch, at least we got 300. Nice to get a bit of form before the next match and hopefully I can continue it.”

England next play Sri Lanka at the Westpac Stadium in Wellington March 1.