ENGLAND slumped to an eight-wicket defeat at the hands of a rampant Australia in their final group game at the Twenty20 Cup in South Africa.
But Paul Collingwood's side have still progressed to the competition's knockout phase courtesy of a better run rate than their other group opponents, Zimbabwe.
Matthew Hayden cracked an unbeaten 67 runs off 43 balls as Australia reached their 136-run target with more than five overs to spare.
Fellow opener Adam Gilchrist also smashed a quickfire 45 as Australia's batsmen made the most of an impressive display from their bowlers.
Andrew Flintoff (31) was England's top scorer as they were bowled out for just 135, but Kevin Pietersen and Darren Maddy were the only other batsmen to top 20 as Collingwood's men struggled to generate any momentum.
Nathan Bracken was the pick of the Australian attack, finishing with figures of 3-16.
** READ AN IN-DEPTH ANALYSIS OF ENGLAND'S PERFORMANCE IN TOMORROW'S NORTHERN ECHO **
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