England's Ben Stokes plays a shot during the 2023 ICC Men's Cricket World Cup one-day international (ODI) match between England and Pakistan. Photo: DIBYANGSHU SARKAR / AFP
Current champions England ended their dismal World Cup campaign with a 93-run victory over Pakistan on Saturday, denying the 1992 champions the miracle they needed to make it to the last four of the showpiece 50-overs tournament.
England had already been eliminated after six defeats in seven matches in a debacle that has prompted demands for an overhaul of their one-day squad.
Electing to bat at Eden Gardens, England racked up a solid 337-9, with three of their top four batters smashing fifties in their third 300-plus total of the tournament.
Jonny Bairstow (59), Joe Root (60) and Ben Stokes (84) made half-centuries in a display that left their fans wishing the batters could have produced similar efforts more often in the tournament.
Pakistan were all out for 244 in the 44th over and bowed out of the tournament after their fifth loss in nine matches.
New Zealand have joined India, South Africa and Australia in the semi-finals, while England have secured a place in the 2025 Champions Trophy in Pakistan.
"Obviously the tournament hasn't gone to plan for us as a whole which is a real disappointment," said player-of-the-match David Willey.
"We have a phenomenal group of players with massive talent. We have underperformed here which is disappointing."
Malan (31) and Bairstow gave England a decent start following captain Jos Buttler's decision to bat.
After the openers departed, Root and Stokes motored along even if it did not exactly rain boundaries.
Pakistan's fielding was sloppy with Shaheen Afridi dropping Malan and Stokes off his own bowling, while Haris Rauf caught a skyer from Buttler only for his shoes to touch the boundary rope, thereby making it a six for England.
Set a daunting target, Pakistan found themselves in the absurd position of needing to complete the chase in just 6.4 overs in order to make the last four ahead of New Zealand.
Willey (3-56), playing his last match for England, dismissed both the Pakistan openers in his first two overs.
Babar Azam (38) and Mohammad Rizwan (36) got decent starts but could not push on to bigger totals.
Agha Salman made 51 and down the order, Rauf smacked three sixes in his entertaining knock of 35 but it mattered little in the end.
"We will sit together and take stock," Babar said of Pakistan's campaign.
"We'll take positives from this and discuss mistakes. I'm keen to lead the rebuild."
- This story was first published by Reuters.