West Indies beat England by five wickets in a rain-reduced run-chase to reach the semi-finals at the expense of the hosts.

Ramnaresh Sarwan (19 not out off 9 balls) and Shivnarine Chanderpaul (17 not out off 10 balls) saw their team home in an unbeaten partnership of 37 in 20 balls after England had reduced them to 45-5.

A second shower of the evening delayed the start of the West Indies innings as they looked to chase down an original target of 162.

Play eventually got underway again at 8.25pm with the batting team set a revised total of 80 off nine overs.

Chris Gayle cut the second legitimate ball from James Anderson for four but only one more run came off the over plus, off the last ball, the bonus of a wicket.

Andre Fletcher (0) top-edged a hook behind his head and James Foster only had to take a couple of steps back from his starting position to claim the catch.

Ryan Sidebottom's opening four balls were picked off by Gayle (15) to the tune of 10 runs but he then yorked the left-hander with a slower delivery to boost the home team's chances.

Stuart Broad became the third bowler to strike in his first over when Lendl Simmons sliced his first ball to Sidebottom at third man.

West Indies were 23-3 off the reduced three-over Powerplay, leaving West Indies to get another 57 off six overs.

Graeme Swann conceded just three from his first five balls but Kieron Pollard spoilt the over with a six over long-off.

Dwayne Bravo then drove another six at the start of Adil Rashid's as the match swung back towards West Indies.

Rashid then bowled Pollard (9) with a leg-break that pitched on leg-stump and hit middle to disturb the batting side's new-found dominance.

Swann and Foster then combined for the second successive evening - having removed India's key batsman Yuvraj Singh - to remove dangerman Bravo (18) when he dragged his foot outside the crease.

Anderson's second over - the seventh - produced 13 as the match again swung towards the batting side with 16 needed from the last 12 balls.

The experienced pair of Sarwan and Chanderpaul edged their side ever-closer to victory with 13 from Broad's penultimate over to leave just three required off the last six balls.

Sarwan ended the match with a boundary when he smashed a Sidebottom full-toss to extra-cover with four balls to spare.

England's 161-6 may have tested West Indies more in a full contest but the weather ultimately played its part on proceedings.

Pollard's first-over success was tempered by next man Kevin Pietersen, who ended the over with successive boundaries off his first two balls faced.

Jerome Taylor also suffered during his first over - the fifth of the innings - when 15 were taken, including three boundaries thumped back through the 'v'.

Fletcher then took a comfortable catch on the midwicket boundary to remove Pietersen for 31 off 19 balls, just when the second-wicket pair looked intent on taking the game away from the West Indies.

England reached the midway point at 83-2 and Owais Shah began the second half of their innings by picking up Taylor over backward square-leg for the first six of the innings.

Shah (18) looked in good touch but he then pulled Simmons to Fletcher who took a miraculous leaping catch at deep square-leg.

Bopara's 50 came up off 43 balls as England entered the last five overs on 116-3.

The young right-hander was then trapped leg by Gayle for 55 just as rain began to fall for the first time.

England had reached 129-4 when the downpour became sufficiently torrential to bring a halt to proceedings.

Play resumed 30 minutes after the players left the field, meaning no overs would be lost to the match.

Paul Collingwood fell in the first over back when he shuffled across his stumps to Bravo and was palpably leg before.

Foster (13) holed out to long-on in the final over as England failed to offer the acceleration to supplement their decent start.

Broad (10 not out off 2 balls) did at least find the boundary off the penultimate ball of the innings - the first since the second ball of the 11th over - and followed that up with a six over long-on to end England's effort on a high.

West Indies thus move on to the semi-finals but must wait for the result of South Africa's match against India to decide their final position in Group E.