England finally dumped out of World Cup after Australia defeat

England's World Cup nightmare continued as their miniscule mathematical hopes of staying in the competition were finally extinguished by bitter rivals Australia.

After five defeats from their first six games the defending champions had long since given up hope of reaching the semi-finals, but officially bowing out at the hands of their Ashes foes with a 33-run defeat simply poured salt into open wounds.

Once again it was their batting that let them down, failing to get to grips with a manageable target after a spirited showing from the bowling unit left Australia 286 all out in the final over.

England were knocked over for 253 in response, Ben Stokes top-scoring with 64 but unable to pull his side out of the fire.

On the eve of the match Stokes had bluntly deemed England’s campaign as "crap" and as they sit rooted to the foot of the table, with qualification for the 2025 Champions Trophy now in serious doubt, it is hard to improve on that description.

England kept an unchanged XI for the third game in a row and their refusal to thrust their best young batter, Harry Brook, back into a top six that has repeatedly imploded looks increasingly eccentric.

Established names like Jonny Bairstow, Joe Root and captain Jos Buttler continued their dreadful sequence of scores, while all-rounder Liam Livingstone struggled to make a case with bat or ball. Keeping Brook waiting any longer would surely be madness.

England were back at Ahmedabad’s Narendra Modi Stadium, the same ground where they were thrashed by New Zealand in the curtain-raiser a month ago, and they will be happy to see the back of the place.

Like their most recent defeat to India, England looked competitive at the halfway stage. Chris Woakes, player of the series in this