Moeen Ali takes pride in lifting England to decider against West Indies

Moeen Ali took some satisfaction from leading England to a series-levelling victory against the West Indies, setting up a winner-takes-all showdown in Sunday’s fifth Twenty20.

England’s stand-in captain, deputising after Eoin Morgan sustained a low grade quad injury that has ruled him out of this weekend’s double header, sparkled with seven of his side’s 15 sixes in an astonishing 63 off just 28 balls.

Jason Roy had earlier benefited from being dropped on three to contribute 52 off 42 balls on a sluggish pitch although West Indies captain Kieron Pollard applied the brakes with figures of 4-0-23-1 at the Kensington Oval.

But Moeen took centre stage at the death as England added 59 in their last three overs, belting Jason Holder for four successive sixes, to finish on 193 for six, with the Windies restricted to 159 for five.

Moeen took two for 28 in the reply as the Windies struggled against spin and ultimately ran out of steam at the back end of their innings to lose by 34 runs, with the five-match series now 2-2 and going to a decider at the same venue in Barbados.

This was Moeen’s first victory as England captain after two previous defeats, and comes just days after he was out for a duck and conceded 14 in his only over as the tourists lost the third T20.

Moeen said: “In the last game I did nothing – I got hit, I got nought, you’ve got to accept that sometimes. Here, I’m really happy I could contribute to keeping the series alive.

“Obviously I’m more happy that we won. To win as captain is brilliant so I’m really happy.”

England were labouring on 134 for three after 17 overs before Moeen decided to take on Holder although he insisted there was no panicking at their position.

He said: “In that situation there was only