Isaac Mohammed, nephew of former England all-rounder Moeen Ali, scored his maiden professional half-century in the One-Day Cup on Sunday (August 10).
At the County Ground in Chelmsford, Worcestershire skipper Jake Libby won the toss and chose to bat first against Essex. There were a couple of famous cricketing connections with their openers, as Brett d'Oliveira, grandson of Basil, and 17-year-old Isaac Mohammed, nephew of recently-retired England all-rounder Moeen Ali, took strike.
Match 21, Essex vs Worcestershire
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This was just the second List A game of Isaac's career, having made his debut against Nottinghamshire three days ago. He also represented Worcestershire eight times in this year's T20 Blast, scoring 154 runs at a strike rate of 154.
Isaac Mohammed scores maiden professional fifty, in second List A game
The first four overs yielded nine runs before Isaac, on one off 15 at the time, hit Charlie Bennett over long-off for six and through midwicket for four off consecutive deliveries. Going along rather patiently while finding the odd boundary, Isaac eventually reached his maiden half-century in professional cricket with an attempted hoick over the leg side that took a leading edge, running behind the wicketkeeper for four.
Off the very next ball, Isaac pulled Noah Thain for his third six of the innings and in the next over, deposited leggie Matt Critchley over long-off; threatening to take the game away from Essex. But his innings was cut short in the following over as off-spinner Tom Westley snuck one through his defence to trap Isaac lbw for 63.
In what has been a short career so far, Isaac has already made a name for himself as a powerful striker of the ball. In June this year, he hammered four sixes en route to 42 off 28 balls, on Youth ODI debut against India. In 10 professional matches so far (all limited-overs), Isaac has hit 22 fours and 16 sixes; 184 of his 225 professional runs, or 81.7 per cent, have come from hits to or over the boundary.
Image credit: YouTube / Essex Cricket
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