South Africa v England

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Proteas celebrate the wicket of Collingwood.

By Myles Hodgson, PA Sport Cricket Correspondent, Barbados

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.

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 a lowly 154 - South Africa cruising to a nine-wicket triumph with over 30 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 25.

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 international cricket was never more ruthlessly exposed than in this encounter.

While England have based their whole 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 judgement 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 own 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.

With the pressure on, further wickets were inevitable and Kevin Pietersen, desperate to do well against his homeland after the abuse he received from the crowds on his return to South Africa as an England player two years ago, was unable to deliver.

After a public war of words with Nel and South African captain Smith, Pietersen would have winced at the manner of his dismissal when the pair combined to claim a leading edge at mid-on.

But for a determined 58-run stand between Andrew Strauss and Paul Collingwood, England could perhaps have been looking at a total to rival their lowest ever World Cup score of 93 recorded against Australia at Headingley in 1975.

Back then a swing bowler called Gary Gilmour accounted for England and this time all-rounder Hall used similar principles to virtually end the match as a contest by claiming four wickets in nine deliveries.

Brought into the attack in the 34th over of the innings having already impressed with an opening spell of 5-2-10-0, Hall used reverse swing to tear through the middle order.

Jacques Kallis had struck the previous over with Strauss cutting him straight to Smith at wide slip and then Hall struck with the fifth ball of his new spell, angling the ball into Collingwood and winning the lbw appeal.

The first ball of his next over was the key wicket, swinging through the gap between Andrew Flintoff's bat and pad to knock back his middle stump.

Five balls later he tempted Paul Nixon to edge an outswinger behind.

And he completed his stunning spell in his next over when Sajid Mahmood got an inside edge onto his stumps for a first-ball duck, before returning to end the innings with two overs to spare by trapping last man James Anderson lbw.

Despite a reputation for choking in pressure situations, 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.

Smith hammered an unbeaten 89 off only 58 balls, including 13 fours, the final one of which settled the match when he drove Mahmood down the ground.

He shared a stunning opening stand of 85 in only 9.5 overs with AB de Villiers, which ended only when Flintoff tempted the right-hander into edging behind for 42 off 35 balls.

Mahmood had Smith caught behind for 74, only to be no-balled for over-stepping - but by then South Africa only needed 18 for victory.