BRIDGETOWN (Barbados), April 21: West Indies were 173-2 after 30 overs of their World Cup Super Eights match against England at the Kensington Oval here on Saturday.

Skipper Brian Lara, playing in his last match before retirement, was on 18 with Marlon Samuels on 0.

Chris Gayle was the first man out caught by Stuart Broad off Andrew Flintoff for a fine 79 off 58 balls which included three sixes. Gayle's wicket fell with the total on 131 in the 24th over.

That brought Lara to the crease.

Devon Smith was next man out falling to a brilliant catch by Paul Collingwood off Flintoff for a patient 61 with the total on 168 in the 30th over.

England captain Michael Vaughan elected to field after winning the toss against the West Indies in the two teams' last match at the tournament.

Lara is making his last international appearance, having scored 10,387 runs in 298 one-dayers with 19 centuries before this game.

The stylish left-hander is the leading Test scorer with 11,953 runs in 131 matches with 34 hundreds. The match is also the last for Duncan Fletcher as England coach.

England and the West Indies have failed to qualify for the semi-finals and are now fighting for the fifth-sixth placings. Both have four points from six matches.

England made three changes from the team that lost to South Africa by nine wickets in the previous match, bringing in James Dalrymple, Stuart Broad and Liam Plunkett.

Scoreboard

WEST INDIES:

C.H. Gayle c Broad b Flintoff 79

D.S. Smith c Collingwood b Flintoff 61

B.C. Lara not out 18

M.N. Samuels not out 0

EXTRAS (LB-1, W-12, NB-2) 15

TOTAL (for two wkts, 30 overs) 173

FALL OF WKT: 1-131 (Gayle, 23.5 ov), 2-168 (Smith, 29.3).

TO BAT: R.R. Sarwan, S. Chanderpaul, D.J. Bravo, D. Ramdin, D.B. Powell, J.E. Taylor, C.D. Collymore.

BOWLING (to-date): Anderson 6-0-39-0 (6w); Plunkett 4-0-38-0 (1nb, 3w); Broad 3-0-15-0 (1w); Flintoff 6-0-27-2 (1nb); Dalrymple 3-0-19-0 (1w); Collingwood 5-0-27-0 (1w); Vaughan 3-0-7-0.

ENGLAND: A.J. Strauss, M.P. Vaughan, R.S. Bopara, K.P. Pietersen, P.D. Collingwood, A. Flintoff, J.W.M. Dalrymple, P.A. Nixon, L.E. Plunkett, J.M. Anderson, S.C.J. Broad.

UMPIRES: R.E. Koertzen (South Africa) and S.J.A. Taufel (Australia).

TV UMPIRE: B.F. Bowden (New Zealand).

MATCH REFEREE: R.S. Madugalle (Sri Lanka).—Agencies