Collingwood laments rain-hit exit

Collingwood looks at positives after exit

England captain Paul Collingwood was left to lament the rain as West Indies eliminated his side from the ICC World Twenty20 with a five-wicket win.

Set a revised target of 80 from nine overs, Windies won with four balls left at The Oval and Collingwood said: "In 20 overs we'd have had a better chance.

"The guys at the top have been fantastic but there are areas where we've let ourselves down a bit.

"All we need is a bit of experience to hopefully take us to the next stage."

Asked whether his team had shown improvements in their approach to the style of Twenty20, Collingwood added: "Absolutely. I think you've seen that from a couple of our performances, particularly against Pakistan and India, and we're starting to get some players in there who are getting to grips with it."

England coach Andy Flower said of the Duckworth-Lewis method of resetting totals: "It is probably the fairest method used in cricket but it was a pity it was only nine overs."

Sarwan hails 'brilliant' West Indies display

Flower also defended a team selection that resulted in Dimitri Mascarenhas being dropped and the big-hitting Graham Napier again consigned to the sidelines.

"I don't think it was a massive gamble," said Flower.

"We picked specialist batsmen and bowlers, we thought the variety of bowlers was right for the captain to call on but we were light in power hitting.

"We thought Adil Rashid would bowl well on this wicket, it was a pity he didn't get the opportunity to bowl because of the weather, but the one over he bowled I thought he bowled very well."

"Rashid will benefit hugely from the exposure and the quicks are growing all the time.

"We are getting better and this tournament serves us very well in the learning stakes."

West Indies hero Ramnaresh Sarwan fittingly won the man-of-the-match award for his crucial nine-ball innings, sharing an unbroken stand of 37 from 18 balls with Shivnarine Chanderpaul.

They had been reduced to 45-5 in the sixth over but Sarwan said: "We were confident and what paid out for us the experience of myself and Shiv.

"We tried not to panic, make contact with the ball and whenever we can get a bad ball away we'd take it.

"He's very strong mentally and supported me very well."