Brian Lara's final game in international cricket was a 601-run, 19-wicket thriller that finished off the next-to-last ball of the 99th over.

Sadly for Lara, his West Indies lost to England by one run in front of its own fans in Barbados and he was run out for only 18, the victim of a teammates' blunder.

In his last match before retiring from international cricket, West Indies captain Brian Lara acknowledges the applause after being run out during the Cricket World Cup Super 8s match between England and West Indies. England won 301-300.
(Matt Dunham/Associated Press)

"Things didn't work out as planned," Lara said after taking the applause of his teammates, England players and a packed 22,452 crowd at Kensington Oval.

"Still it was a very good cricket game, 600 runs scored in a day. What a fitting way to end to my career — runs galore."

England's victory meant it finished fifth in the Super 8s standings, behind the four teams who made it to the semifinal — Australia, Sri Lanka, New Zealand and South Africa.

While they move on to next week's semifinals — Sri Lanka-New Zealand in Jamaica on Tuesday and Australia-South Africa at St. Lucia on Wednesday — England and West Indies bid to shrug off World Cup disappointment and go head-to-head in a Test and one-day series next month.

"It was nice to get a victory, and nice to have a fantastic crowd in tune and I hope everybody has been entertained," said England captain Michael Vaughan, who scored 79 runs and took three wickets. "We have won the game, but we have not done what we should have done in this tournament.

"We've got to be realistic and say we haven't played as well as we should have done throughout this tournament."

One of cricket's greats

The fans packed into the Kensington Oval to see one of cricket's greats for the last time. By coincidence, the game was against the team against whom he twice set world record Test scores, first of 375 and then of 400, which still stands.

England's decision to let West Indies bat first theoretically gave the fans an early chance to see the great man.

But the locals were delighted to wait as West Indies openers, Chris Gayle (79) and Devon Smith (61), put on 131 for the opening wicket.

Lara was initially thought to be batting down at No. 6. But he made his appearance at three and the England players moved towards him to stand in two lines as a guard of honour.

They then tried to get him out, but Lara's teammate, Marlon Samuels, did that for them.

Samuels, yet to score, called for a single with the ball rolling towards fielder Kevin Pietersen. Lara initially responded, but then turned back, realizing there was no run there. He didn't make it as Pietersen's direct throw hit the stumps.

Lara walked off the field for the last time, raising his bat and his helmet as the crowd stood to applaud his final appearance.

"Unfortunately, I didn't play much of a part with the bat. It's not a problem," he said referring to Samuel's mistake. "These things happen. You learn that from school cricket — if the ball's behind you, you run. That's unfortunate but let's move on."

Bowled out

As if overcome by guilt, Samuels cut loose with two fours off Chris Broad and then hit Liam Plunkett for a six and three fours in one over. He went on to score 51 and the West Indies reached 300 before being bowled out with a ball to go. Its last six wickets went down for only 42 runs.

Although England lost Andrew Strauss for seven, Vaughan shrugged off the poor form that has plagued him for 18 months and hit two sixes and six fours on the way to 79.

The England captain seemed set for his first ever one-day century in his 85th one-day appearance, but was run out chasing a single when Dwayne Bravo's long-range throw hit the stumps.

That left England 154-3 and wickets continued to fall until Pietersen and Paul Nixon came together at 189-6 with just over 14 overs to go.
  
They put on 80 runs with Pietersen launching a six off Jerome Taylor to reach his century with England on 269, needing 33 runs off 23 balls. When Pietersen tried to repeat the stroke off the next ball, he completely missed and was bowled.
  
Three balls later Plunkett lobbed a catch to Bravo and it looked as if Lara would retire with a victory after all.
  
But Nixon wouldn't stick to the script, hitting three fours off Corey Collymore and contriving four byes in the same over. When he was bowled by Bravo in the next to last over, five more runs were still needed off nine deliveries and tailender Broad, playing his first World Cup, saw England home with a ball to spare.