LEEDS, England — West Indies ended their miserable Cricket World Cup campaign with 23-run revenge victory over Afghanistan at Headingley yesterday.

It was West Indies’ second win of the tournament, after they beat Pakistan in their opening encounter at Trent Bridge in late May.

West Indies, inconsistent and lacking execution at critical moments throughout the tournament, were only able to muster five points from nine matches and could not progress to the semi-finals. Winless Afghanistan finished without a point.

West Indies captain Jason Holder was pleased to round off with a win.

“Yeah, it was good to get over the line. The batsmen stepped up — we started very well with Evin (Lewis), Shai (Hope) setting a good platform, [and] I backed myself to finish off well,” he said in a post-game television interview.

“With the ball, we didn’t start as well as we would’ve liked but fought through.”

The win represented a fitting World Cup farewell for talismanic left-hand batsman Christopher Gayle, playing his last game at the global 50-over showpiece.

“It’s been a privilege and honour to represent West Indies in five World Cups, [but] disappointed to end without making it to the final four. A lot has happened behind the scenes to get here and be here, that’s fantastic,” Gayle said, while reiterating his interest in facing India in 50-over and Twenty20 games later this summer.

Afghanistan captain Gulbadin Naib was encouraged by his team’s battling effort in search of 312 for victory.

“Big stage, in the end it was tough to chase 300-plus but I’m happy with the batting performance,” Naib said.

In sunny conditions on a flat-looking batting pitch, an entertaining affair was on the cards between Afghanistan and West Indies — two teams forced to take the qualification route to reach the World Cup.

West Indies, who were played off the park by Afghanistan in the final of the qualifiers in Zimbabwe last year, won the toss yesterday and chose to bat.

They made a respectable 311-6 despite losing the 39-year-old Gayle for only seven.

But an 88-run stand between left-hand opener Evin Lewis and Shai Hope laid the groundwork for a total beyond 300.

Lewis went for 58 just short of the halfway point in the innings. But at 109-2 Hope found another able ally in Shimron Hetmyer (39), and the two carried West Indies to 174 before the latter fell in the 35th over.

Hope, dropped early, went on to play a typically stylish innings and took the man of the match prize. He held the top-order together with a 92-ball 77, while Nicholas Pooran (58) and Holder (45) landed a number of huge blows to provide late flourish.

Crucially, West Indies bludgeoned 111 runs off the last 10 overs.

In reply, Afghanistan made a brave chase, finishing on 288 all out after losing their last wicket off the final ball of the innings.

They saw Naib (five) dismissed by pacer Kemar Roach — who recovered enough to play after the illness which kept him out of the match against Sri Lanka match earlier this week — in the second over of the innings.

However, a lively partnership between Rahmat Shah and left-hander Ikram Alikhil put the Afghans well on their way to overhauling the total. They thrived against bowling which on the surface appeared listless and lacking in collective planning.

Both were also fortunate to survive chances thanks to West Indies’ sloppiness in the field. However, neither was able to carry on.

Rahmat (62) chipped a catch to Gayle off seamer Carlos Brathwaite to end their 113-run partnership. And Gayle nabbed teenager Alikhil for a breezy 86, leaving them 189-3 in the 36th over.

But though that seemed a good enough position, the demise of the two strokemakers effectively sealed Afghanistan’s fate, given their limited batting power in the middle to lower order.