CHITTAGONG: Stuart Broad looked forward to a new England era after a miserable winter ended with a World Twenty20 exit here on Saturday (also partly reported in Sunday’s edition).

England went down by three runs in a pulsating Super-10 stage Group One match against South Africa, going out of the semi-final race after two defeats in three matches.

That ended a frustrating winter for England who lost the coveted Ashes in Australia, a whitewash which turned acrimonious with the axing of key batsman Kevin Pietersen.

“It’s going to be a new era of English cricket, isn’t it? It has been a tough winter,” admitted Broad.

“We’ve been away a huge amount of time so there are some fantastic opportunities available for players in the summer.”

Broad said despite the exit there were some positives for the 2010 World Twenty20 champions.

“We’ve had a lot of positives come out of this World Cup. If we had got out of the group there would have been a lot of surprised people. We’re disappointed but we’ve done some good stuff with the squad available to us,” said Broad.

England had looked like the side to beat after they upset favourites Sri Lanka on Thursday, successfully chasing a challenging 190-run target.

Alex Hales smashed a 64-ball 116 not out to carry England to their first win but South Africa piled up tournament’s highest total of 196-5 on Saturday which was beyond England who managed to reach 193-7.

Wayne Parnell claimed 3-31 to hurt England’s chase while Imran Tahir finished with 2-27, giving him a handy support.

Parnell, replacing Lowanbo Tsotsobe, brought back the side in contention, having dismissed Michael Lumb (18) who with Alex Hales, gave England a rapid start in their bid to chase a big total.

Hales scored at fluent pace. But Parnell returned with a bang to dismiss Hales and Moeen Ali (10) in consecutive deliveries to halt England’s march. Hales struck six fours and one six in his 38 off 22.

Imran had taken out threatening Eoin Morgan (14) and Jos Buttler to take South Africa closer.

Ravi Bopara (31) kept England’s hope running but Dale Steyn in the first ball of the last over removed him when England needed 22.

Tim Bresnan along with Broad had taken 18 off the over with the former scoring 17 off 4. But still they fell short of four runs to win the game.England play their meaningless last game against the Netherlands on Monday.