Cricket World Cup: If only it were possible to put England out of their misery

Alas, they still have four matches to live through, starting with unbeaten hosts India in Lucknow on Sunday; after that, the potential for further misery against Australia, Netherlands and Pakistan.

Mathematically, the defending champions are still clinging on like Harold Lloyd on the side of the clock face in Safety Last!

Realistically, they have already fallen off the side of the skyscraper and on to the busy street below, mangled in the wheels of the onrushing traffic.

This latest defeat, a fourth in five games, by eight wickets against Chris Silverwood’s Sri Lanka, was surely the most depressing of them all.

Where was the response after the 229-run defeat to South Africa on Saturday, England’s heaviest in one-day internationals? Where was the evidence of the subsequent talk that they were going to play aggressively and without fear translating into actual deeds on the field?

Instead, England were dismissed for 156 in 33.2 overs (ironically, it meant that they left exactly 100 balls of their innings unused – there’s a moral in there somewhere) before Sri Lanka romped home with 24.2 overs left, in the process igniting their own campaign which had hitherto matched England’s in terms of results.

A bad day in Bangalore, then, and one that would have been even worse had Sri Lanka chosen to review off the game’s first ball.