England's pretentions as World Cup challengers were ruthlessly swept aside as South Africa sent them tumbling to a humiliating exit at the Kensington Oval in Barbados yesterday.
Despite stuttering their way through the competition, England still believed they had what it took to provide dangerous opposition to the leading sides and claim the victory which would have secured their first semi-final spot since 1992.
But instead of their big-match players thriving in the situation, England crumbled, with man-of-the-match Andrew Hall claiming five wickets for 18 runs to dismiss them for just 154. South Africa cruised to a nine-wicket triumph with 30.4 overs remaining.
The emphatic victory sets up a possible semi-final between world champions Australia and South Africa, the two highest-ranked sides in the world, in St Lucia on April 25th.
By then England's outclassed squad will be back at home having under-performed for the majority of the tournament, while the future of coach Duncan Fletcher and captain Michael Vaughan will inevitably be discussed.
England's failure to grasp the rudimentary basics of one-day cricket was never more ruthlessly exposed than in this encounter.
While England have based their gameplan on being conservative at the start to keep wickets in hand - in complete contrast to all other leading sides in the tournament - South Africa exposed it for the massive error in judgment it always was.
Having bowled with great skill and discipline to dismiss England for a lowly total, South Africa set about their attack with such gusto they brought up the opening half-century partnership in only 34 balls.
The error in England's ways were highlighted from an early stage after they won the toss and decided to bat first on another fast and bouncy surface, no doubt influenced by their difficulties in chasing a modest target against Bangladesh last Wednesday.
But faced with accurate new ball spells from Shaun Pollock and Charl Langeveldt, England simply ran out of scoring options and crawled to only nine runs in the first seven overs.
Vaughan underlined England's problem by taking 20 deliveries to get off the mark, putting pressure on opening partner Ian Bell, who mistimed an attempted pull off Langeveldt and was caught at midwicket in the next over.
The skipper fell five overs later for a scratchy 17 when he was given lbw to Andre Nel's second delivery.
Despite a reputation for "choking", South Africa were not afraid to attack England's modest total with Smith seemingly set on making a point after the lurid headlines of several members of his squad drinking late on Saturday night in the aftermath of their defeat to New Zealand.
Captain Graeme Smith hammered an unbeaten 89 off only 58 balls, including 13 fours, the final one of which settled the match when he drove Sajid Mahmood down the ground.
