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England captain Stuart Broad says his team are "gutted" after being knocked out of the World Twenty20 in Sri Lanka.

The defending champions suffered a 19-run defeat against the hosts to miss out on a place in the semi-finals.

"Coming to the ground today, we had a good feeling that we could go far," said a disappointed Broad.

"I thought we had the power to go far in this tournament but, with a young side, you get good performances and you get some average ones."

England had given themselves a chance of qualifying for the semi-finals with an impressive six-wicket win against New Zealand on Saturday, but they fell short against Sri Lanka.

Samit Patel hit a maiden international T20 half-century, but Lasith Malinga claimed five wickets for the hosts, including three in one over.

Chasing Sri Lanka's 169-6, Patel scored a classy 67 but England finished on 150-9 after recovering from 18-3 in Pallekele.

"Our fielding hasn't been as good as it could have been, our death bowling let us down on the odd occasion and early wickets have hurt us," said Broad, who added that England must learn from their mistakes.

"We lost three wickets in an over today which really damaged us, but we have to look at the positives, too. Samit played an excellent knock, certainly against the spin, and Steven Finn's been fantastic for us in this tournament."

England began their campaign with an easy win over Afghanistan, but were crushed by 90 runs in their next game against India. A 15-run defeat against West Indies followed, before they gave themselves a chance of making the last four with a six-wicket win over New Zealand.

England's batting let them down against India, West Indies and Sri Lanka, but Broad sees a bright future for his team as they look to the next World Cup in 2014, which takes place in Bangladesh.

"I have learned that we have got a very exciting group of young guys," said Broad. "We have been a little bit too inconsistent but we are learning from every game and that is important."

Coach Andy Flower also maintains there are positives to take from the campaign, despite the early exit.

Flower said: "These young players would have got a great deal out of it but, as everyone knows, world tournaments aren't there for the learning curve, they are there to win and we haven't done that.

"I think the group of players we have here are a very talented bunch and very young. We probably lacked a little experience, certainly in the batting department, but some of the guys acquitted themselves very well."