LONDON: England spinner Moeen Ali has said pacer Mark Wood fully deserved his wickets in the ongoing second Test against India here at the Lord's Cricket Ground.
Wood went on to dismiss Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul and Cheteshwar Pujara in the second innings to put the visitors on the backfoot.
"I was very pleased for him (Wood). He was telling me in the first innings that he doesn't get the wickets he would like, and I said these things can happen and they will come. The way he bowled was fantastic and it was a great catch by me at deep square leg! He fully deserved his wickets and the wicket of Pujara was massive. The way he ran in and banged the wicket with a soft ball on a dead wicket. I thought he was fantastic," Moeen said during a virtual press conference.
"It's a fantastic Test match. It's great for me personally to come back and to be a part of it, and hopefully tomorrow morning we can bowl them out and chase the runs down. They've got Pant, but we've got Jimmy," he added.
Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli both disappointed with the bat in the second innings after being dismissed for 21 and 20 respectively. While, Rohit was sent back to the pavilion while playing his favoured pull shot, Kohli chased a wide delivery bowled outside off.
Ajinkya Rahane and Cheteshwar Pujara scored 61 and 45 respectively as India ended Day 4 at 181/6 and the visitors have extended their lead to 154.
"The chat in the afternoon was just to hang in there, basically. Don't try and search too much, just stay in there and something will happen. They came back strong and played really well, but I thought we still managed to contain them really well. We knew if we could get one out we could go bang-bang," said Moeen.
"We are a bowling unit. Jimmy got five in the first innings, Woody and I got a few each. It takes a full team effort as a bowling unit, and that's what we've been in this game," he added.