BBC News Online: Sport: 1999 Cricket World Cup: Editorial Features

England - what went wrong?

A couple of weeks ago, you would have got good money betting that the two teams in the tournament's curtain-raiser would not make it to the next stage.

Sri Lanka were poor defending champions, never happy with English conditions and chilly windswept grounds.

England's exit is a calamity for the organisers.

It is the first time they have failed to make it to the second stage of a World Cup. But it was always on the cards after Zimbabwe's staggering victory over the tournament favourites South Africa - and India finished the job.

The grizzly clouds hanging over Edgbaston on Sunday reflected the mood in the home pavilion as a succession of batsmen trooped back from the middle and ecstatic Indian supporters threw a party in the stands.

So much then for team England. While the Super Six battle it out for the trophy, Alec Stewart's men make an anticlimactic return to the hum-drum of the county circuit.

At the risk of being labelled whinging Poms, there are some hard luck stories to be told. Certainly South Africa did them no favours by capitulating to Zimbabwe.

And Sunday's slide to miserable defeat against India was triggered by Graham Thorpe's questionable lbw dismissal.

England finished with a record of won three, lost two. But it wasn't enough.

When the pressure was on, England failed, as captain Alec Stewart recognised. "You can only win games and we won three of them very well and very easily, but against South Africa we collapsed as a batting team and here we were not quite up to it."

Run rates tell the tale

Run rates were crucial, an indication of where it went wrong - the batting.

The middle order was only tested twice, and both times it failed dismally, blown away by South Africa and India.

Andrew Flintoff's swashbuckling form for Lancashire could not be repeated at a higher level, while Adam Hollioake and Mark Ealham looked out of sorts.

There were problems too at the top. Nick Knight's sad loss of form in the pre-tournament warm-up games meant a last-minute change of plan, with Nasser Hussain opening instead.

England missed Knight's ability to give the innings the hurry-up from the start, while the other opener Stewart, despite a determined display against Sri Lanka, continued to struggle.

Frankly, the batsmen let down the bowlers who did little wrong and lots of things right, especially Darren Gough and Alan Mullally, who relished the seamers' wickets and the swinging white balls.

Back to the drawing board, then, while England fans are left to watch the best of the rest fight it out and think what might have been.

In this section

Allott of wickets for surprise star
Klusener: The one-day wrecker
India's post mortem begins
World Cup history
World Cup Bowling Averages
World Cup Batting Averages
Embers' spin on World Cup bowlers
Cricket pulls a fast one
Foxy's focus on World Cup batsmen
Instructions wide of the mark
Gone for a Duckworth
Dickie: No need for new coach
Dickie's guide to the teams
Dickie Bird's guide to the Super Six
Dickie's guide to World Cups past
Dickie's guide to the tournament
Learn To Play Cricket
Let the carnival begin
Athers joins BBC team
1996: Sri Lanka show the way
1992: Pakistan surprise the world
1987: The ice-man cometh
1983: India upset the odds
1979: Windies win again
1975: The story begins
Caption competition 6 results