TOM Moody admitted his Worcestershire side "failed to deliver" in last night's Twenty20 defeat at Surrey.

The New Road director of cricket saw his team put themselves in pole position for a semi-final slot, having the holders at 50-5 at one stage, but they ultimately couldn't take advantage as they lost by 14 runs at The Oval.

On two occasions, in the quarter-final clash, Worcestershire looked odds-on to progress, first when tight bowling from Andy Bichel, Andrew Hall and Nadeem Malik had put the County in control and then, when chasing 146 to win, Vikram Solanki and Gareth Batty saw their side to 70-1 in reply.

Moody's men were undone, however, by former England one-day skipper Adam Hollioake who stole the show. Hollioake hit an unbeaten 45 to guide his side to 145-7 and then claimed 3-31 at the death to kill off Worcestershire's Twenty20 final dreams.

"It was very disappointing," said Moody. "We'd restricted them to a very gettable total but then, in reply, we couldn't recover from a seven-over spell where we only scored 24 runs.

"In that form of cricket, you can recover from a couple of lean overs but not seven.

"It's all the more disappointing because we gave ourselves such a good start in both innings. We'd bowled well and then Vikram and Gareth had put us in a good position.

"Ultimately, though, we failed to deliver and that's what is so disappointing."

Surrey, who are still unbeaten in the Twenty20 Cup having won the competition last season, are being touted as likely champions again this time around. Moody, though, believes another side have the fire- power to gun down the Lions.

"If I had to pick a side to go on and win it, it would be Glamorgan. For me, they are a more efficient side.

"Surrey are winning games almost because they are on a roll and they keep getting themselves in those positions out of habit."

County skipper Ben Smith, meanwhile, is only rated 50-50 by Moody to make Worcester's day-night match with Middlesex tomorrow at New Road.

l Full Twenty20 report -- Page 38.