England OUT of Cricket World Cup 2015 in embarrassing fashion following defeat against Bangladesh by 15 runs at Adelaide Oval

There have been all manner of World Cup shambles for England since they should have won the 1992 final here in Australia. But never one as bad as this.

This, surely, is the worst yet, worse than 1996 when Sri Lanka’s pinch-hitters left them trailing in their wake. Worse, even, than 1999 when England were eliminated from their own World Cup the day before the official song came out.

And it is certainly worse than the last three World Cups when we had come to expect England to struggle in the one-day game, particularly in 2007 and last time when the biggest tournament in limited-overs cricket followed the Ashes. 

The 15-run defeat here by Bangladesh at the Adelaide Oval, which confirmed England’s abject surrender, is nothing short of an utter humiliation, an embarrassment that, not for the first time in recent years, leaves them as the laughing stock of world cricket.

This was the World Cup that England were supposed to take seriously and prepare thoroughly for. This was the World Cup that the Ashes were moved for, leading to a 5-0 thrashing last winter and all manner of painful recriminations.

Yet so far advanced has the one-day game progressed in the last two years since England reached the Champions Trophy final that clearing the calendar and playing only one-day cricket so far this winter has been akin to trying to put a sticking plaster on a gaping wound.

England have been able to defeat just Scotland in this tournament and after being thrashed by Australia, New Zealand and Sri Lanka they have now been humbled by a team in Bangladesh who are little more than minnows themselves.

This tournament was set up to virtually guarantee the progress of the big eight teams to the quarter-finals. It was almost impossible for England to fail to at least get to the last eight where defeat would have been far from a disgrace.

Or so it seemed. Instead this is a defeat that deserves to be considered as a total disgrace. 

It is one that leaves Peter Moores fighting to salvage his reputation as a credible coach of England and Paul Downton, the man who appointed him, facing huge questions about the big decisions he has made.

When the dust settles and England have gone through the motions of their last group match against Afghanistan they must have a searching examination of how they play one-day cricket and how they can possibly catch up with the rest of the world before they host the next World Cup in four years time.

It is not just Moores and Downton with much to contemplate. Senior players such as Ian Bell, Stuart Broad and Jimmy Anderson have not provided the proper example needed from senior players in a young team and should retire from one-day cricket to allow a new young vibrant team to be built.

And the decision to replace Alastair Cook with Eoin Morgan as one-day captain on the brink of this tournament has backfired, the new leader falling for his fifth duck in his last nine innings just when his team needed him most. 

Morgan has been given permission to miss England’s first one-day international after this World Cup, against an Ireland team having a far better tournament than England, so he can play in the Indian Premier League.

That decision frankly stinks and if Morgan does not want to lead England into a new one-day era then he should give up the job now and let Joe Root, who was seriously considered when Cook was sacked, lead them from now on.

Never mind that Jos Buttler almost rescued England after they had fallen to 163 for six chasing 275. 

And never mind that TV umpire Simon Fry gave an atrocious decision to rule that Chris Jordan had been run out when surely there was doubt over whether his bat had bounced up once he had made his ground.

Moores went into full Graham Taylor mode on the sidelines, raging at the fourth official after a truly awful decision, but in truth England did not deserve to get away with this.

They were second best to a tigerish Bangladesh just as they have been worse than second best throughout this tournament.

And it all started off so well too. It looked as though England were going to have an easy night when Anderson found the bite and swing that had eluded him in this tournament to take two wickets in his first seven balls.

Neither Imrul Kayes nor Tamim Iqbal, the dangerman at the top of the Bangladesh order, could cope as England made a start full of the sort of aggression and purpose that the seriousness of their plight demanded.

Yet England could not have expected the resistance and then blossoming strokeplay that came from a batsman who had never made a one-day international century before in Mahmudullah.

The drop-in pitch at the re-built Adelaide Oval may have been near perfect for batting but the lack of variety in an England attack that has struggled for penetration in this World Cup allowed Bangladesh to flourish.

Mahmudullah found a willing ally in the tiny form of Mushfiqur Rahim, the Bangladeshi ‘mighty atom’ who first faced England as a 16-year-old schoolboy 10 years ago, and together they preyed on England’s nerves.

Mahmudullah certainly enjoyed becoming the first Bangladeshi to record a hundred in a World Cup match and while he and Rahim were adding 141 for the fifth wicket a total beyond 300 looked within his side’s reach.

That they fell 25 short of that was down to much improved death bowling from England, Chris Jordan in particular showing how it should be done after being preferred to Steven Finn in this winner takes all match.

It should have been well within England’s reach but their chase was old-fashioned and flawed with Bell, involved in a schoolboy run out that saw the demise of Moeen Ali, leaving them far too much to do after he had taken 82 balls to reach 63.

The dismissals of Bell and Morgan in four balls from Rubel Hossain, faster than any England bowler, left England deep in the mire and even though Buttler, their main glimmer of hope for a better one-day future, hit 65 off 52 balls they ended up 16 short.

The brilliant Hossain finished it by bowling both Broad and Anderson in three balls in the penultimate over, leaving Chris Woakes stranded on 42, to spark off wild Bangladeshi celebrations. For England it was the end of the world.