England have suffered one of their most humiliating defeats in their one-day international history after losing by 229 runs to South Africa at the Cricket World Cup.
The defending champions had already lost to New Zealand and Afghanistan before taking on South Africa in Wankhede on Saturday, putting them in a position where a victory felt imperative.
Instead, England were set a target of 400 courtesy of a sensational effort with the bat by their opponents, before mustering just 170-9 in 22 overs in their reply with an injured Reece Topley not taking to the crease.
When England won the toss and dismissed Quinton de Kock with the second ball off the bowling of Reece Topley, there was a feeling that they could stamp their mark on opponents who lost had to Netherlands last time out.
Instead, South Africa ran riot, 121 runs coming from the second-wicket stand before Rassie van der Dussen departed for 60, and they had reached 164-3 off just 25.2 overs when Reeza Hendricks left the crease after a swash-buckling 85 from 75.
Although England pegged the Proteas back 243-5, helped by two more wickets for Topley, they were left powerless as Heinrich Klaasen and Marco Jansen produced a match-winning stand.
Klaasen recorded 109 from 67 and Jansen compiled 75 not out from 42, with a total of 151 coming from a 12.4-over period to guide South Africa to 399-7 from their allotted overs.
With the firepower that England possess, they would have expected to keep themselves competitive in the match, but none of their opening eight batsmen scored more than 17, that player being Harry Brook.
At one stage, England were 100-8 after just 16.3 overs, a combination rarely ever seen in cricket, and it required Gus Atkinson (35) and Mark Wood (43) to compile brilliant knocks in their own right - taking a combined total of 38 balls - to put any kind of respectability on England's 170.
While Gerard Coetzee took 3-35, this was a team effort from South Africa, who move into third place in the table and leave England in ninth with a huge deficit with their net run-rate. body check tags ::
