Nottinghamshire batsman Alex Hales scored 68 runs as England slipped to a Super Eight defeat against West Indies in the ICC World Twenty20.

Hales rebuilt the England reply alongside Eoin Morgan in a 108-run partnership after the reply was disrupted with the loss of Craig Kieswetter and Luke Wright inside the opening over.

England posted 164/4, 15 runs short of the West Indies’ 179/5.

"Our principle is that we allow ourselves time to have a look for a couple of overs, assess the wicket and then take our strong options and utilise our strengths," said England captain Stuart Broad.

"We lost two soft wickets early on today and it didn't help us.

"It showed what an awesome batting wicket that was, to get as close as we did having to regroup as much as we had to.

"There are a lot of positives to take out of it from the bowling side of things - the way we regrouped after they got off to a good start and keep them to a total which I thought was below par."

Graeme Swann had Chris Gayle caught in the deep by Steve Finn who made amends for a routine drop off the previous ball.

Gayle had established a solid platform though with a knock of 58 punctuated by sixes off Swann and Samit Patel.

England could yet progress to the knockout stages despite consecutive defeats and will face New Zealand in their next fixture on Saturday.