Defending champions England were knocked out of the World Cup following their 33-run loss to Australia on Saturday.
Adam Zampa produced three timely strikes in the middle overs as Australia recorded a 33-run win, their fifth consecutive victory to stay in the reckoning for a semi-final berth.
The Australia batters were guilty of not converting their starts but still managed to post 286. Marnus Labuschagne (71 off 83) recorded his highest score of the tournament.
England had a good opportunity to pick up a win after four consecutive losses. Ben Stokes (64 off 90) kept the chase alive while batting alongside Dawid Malan (50 off 64 ) and Moeen Ali (42 off 43) before Zampa landed the killer blows to skittle out England for 253 in 48.1 overs.
“It hurts a lot. We certainly haven’t done ourselves justice... Wanted to have a real go at it. It was incredibly tough to reach the highs of 2019... Feel like we’ve let people down,” England captain Jos Buttler admitted after the match.
Zampa first had out-of-form Buttler (1) caught in the deep before getting rid of Stokes. It was a short ball on the leg side and Stokes ended up offering a simple catch to Stoinis at short-fine leg.
It was all over for England when Moeen’s slog sweep off Zampa landed straight into the hands of David Warner at deep mid-wicket.
England batters, including Stokes, Moeen and Malan did exhibit the strokeplay they are known for but could not stay long enough to see their team through.
Left-arm pacer Mitchell Starc got the ball to swing in the Powerplay. He got lucky in the first ball of the England innings as Jonny Bairstow got a faint edge to one swinging down the leg-side.
Joe Root was set up by Starc with a series of inswingers before he pushed one wide and the England No.3 got the outside edge.
Earlier, Labuschange, Steve Smith (44 off 52), Cameron Green (47 off 52) and Marcus Stoinis (35 off 32) were among the batters who failed to cash in on their starts.
Marsh to rejoin
Australia all-rounder Mitchell Marsh will be back with the squad in Mumbai on Sunday, two days before their game against Afghanistan, Cricket Australia said. He had flown back home following the demise of his grandmother.
