Moeen Ali completed his half century for England in the first over of the second day of the first Investec Test match against New Zealand at Lord's.
The Worcestershire all-rounder had dropped down two places in the batting order to number eight – a role he last occupied in first class cricket in 2006.
He was 49 not out overnight and went to his 50 with a pull for four off the fifth delivery of the morning from Tim Southee.
It was Moeen's ninth four and the half century came up off 97 balls.
Moeen was eventually dismissed for 58 off 107 balls in the fourth over of the morning when he was caught behind via a ball of extra bounce from Trent Boult.
The 27-year-old yesterday played an important role as England recovered from 30-4 to 354-7 by the close after being put into bat.
Moeen came in at 251-6 and shared in a stand of 103 with Jos Buttler which only ended when the latter was trapped lbw for 67 to the final ball of the day from Trent Boult.
Moeen hit eight fours in his 92 ball knock as he overcame a couple of early scares to bat in fluent fashion against opponents he had faced at New Road in the tour match last week.
New Zealand called for a review to the very first delivery Moeen faced from Matt Henry with the tourists believing the ball had struck his pad before bat.
But replays showed there was no contact with the pad and the ball had actually hit the outside edge of the bat and flown away to the boundary.
Moeen on 32 also survived a sharp caught and bowled chance to Tim Southee but in between he reeled off a series of impressive shots.
He cover drove Boult for four, repeated the shot against Southee and then deposited Henry to the ropes off the back foot.
Ben Stokes was preferred at number six instead of Moeen and scored 92 and shared in a fifth wicket stand of 161 with Joe Root (98).
