LONDON: Moeen Ali became just the 13th England cricketer to take a Test-match hat-trick when he ended the third Test against South Africa with three wickets in as many balls at The Oval on Monday.

The Worcestershire off-spinner's treble saw him snare Dean Elgar and Kagiso Rabada with the aid of two slip catches by Ben Stokes at the end of his 16th over, before he had Morne Morkel lbw on review with the first ball of his next.

Morkel's dismissal ended the match after lunch on the fifth day, with England winning by 239 runs to go 2-1 up in this four-Test series.

It was the first time in more than a hundred years that a Test had ended with a hat-trick, with Australia off-spinner Hugh Trumble the last bowler to finish a match at this level in similar fashion, against England at Melbourne in 1902.

Ali's hat-trick was also the first in The Oval's 100-Test history -- which dates back to 1880 -- and the first by an England spinner since Tom Goddard's against South Africa at Johannesburg in 1938.

In all there have been 14 England Test hat-tricks, with paceman Stuart Broad -- a current team-mate of Ali -- having twice performed the feat.

England Test hat-tricks:

Season      Player               Opposition       Venue

1882/83    Billy Bates             v AUS       Melbourne
1891/92    Johnny Briggs       v AUS        Sydney
1895/96   George Lohmann   v RSA       Port Elizabeth
1899        Jack Hearne           v AUS       Headingley
1929/30    Maurice Allom        v NZL       Christchurch
1938/39     Tom Goddard        v RSA      Johannesburg
1957          Peter Loader         v WIS       Headingley
1995         Dominic Cork         v WIS       Old Trafford
1998/99    Darren Gough        v AUS        Sydney
2003/04    Matthew Hoggard  v WIS        Barbados
2007/08    Ryan Sidebottom   v NZL        Hamilton
2011         Stuart Broad           v IND        Trent Bridge
2014         Stuart Broad           v SRI        Headingley
2017           Moeen Ali             v RSA       The Oval

Match-ending Test hat-tricks :

1895/96   George Lohmann  ENG v RSA   Port Elizabeth
1901/02   Hugh Trumble         AUS v ENG    Melbourne
2017        Moeen Ali                ENG v RSA    The Oval

—AFP