Worcestershire Rapids Vitality Blast captain, Moeen Ali, hit a superb half century but England went down by five wickets to New Zealand in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup semi-final in Abu Dhabi.
Moeen came to the wicket at 53-2 in the ninth over and played a major role in England being able to set a challenging 167 target.
The all-rounder completed a 36-ball half century with two sixes and three fours.
Moeen shared in stands of 63 in 7.1 overs with Dawid Malan (41) and 40 in four overs with Liam Livingstone (17).
It was a perfectly timed knock and gave the innings valuable momentum.
But some explosive hitting from Daryl Mitchell and Jimmy Neesham saw New Zealand scored 57 from overs 17 to 19 to win with six balls to spare.
Moeen played himself in before cutting spinner Ish Sodhi, his Rapids team-mate last summer, for his first boundary.
He smashed Sodhi for six over the long leg side boundary and paceman Adam Milne received the same treatment over mid-wicket in a 81 metre hit.
Moeen completed his half century in the final over with a lofted boundary through cover and was warmly congratulated by England captain Eoin Morgan and his team-mates.
When New Zealand batted, Moeen made an instant contribution in the field in helping to dismiss another former Worcestershire CCC colleague in Martin Guptill.
Guptill hit the first ball from Chris Woakes for four but that was his only scoring shot before he lobbed a straightforward catch to Moeen at mid-on.
Moeen was not called upon with his spin during the New Zealand run chase.
The third wicket pair of Devon Conway and Mitchell added 82 while there were two wickets for Liam Livingstone during a tidy spell.
New Zealand were 110-4 off 16 overs but Mitchell (72 not out) and Neesham (26) turned the game in the Black Caps favour.
