ANDY Flower believes England’s crushing defeat by South Africa in the World Twenty20 tournament is an accurate reflection of where they stand among the world’s elite in that format.

Sunday’s emphatic victory over Pakistan, which earned their route into the Super Eights stage, briefly lifted hopes that England could end their long wait to lift a major one-day trophy by winning the June 21 final.

But their hopes of qualification for the final stages of the tournament suffered a major setback after South Africa’s seven-wicket victory at Trent Bridge on Thursday when England were dismissed for their lowest ever Twenty20 international total of 111.

It leaves England needing to beat India at Lord’s tomorrow to remain in the competition and, after their humbling experience against South Africa, facing a growing realisation they are still a long way away from challenging the world’s best.

‘‘It’s been a bit of a rollercoaster ride in the Twenty20 so far,’’ admitted England coach Flower. ‘‘We played brilliantly in our warm-up game against West Indies, lost to Holland in a bit of a thriller, played very well against Pakistan and we were very disappointing against South Africa, who pretty much dominated us from the outset.

‘‘I think it’s exacerbated by the nature of Twenty20 cricket and matches can be dominated one way or the other. I also think it’s a reflection of where we are as a team, to be honest.

‘‘I’m not sure where we are ranked in Twenty20 international cricket, but in 50 overs we are around sixth in the world and at the moment that’s the level we’re performing in Twenty20 cricket as well – we’ve got lots of room for improvement.’’ Captain Paul Collingwood conceded England were ‘‘outclassed’’ during the Trent Bridge mauling, when South Africa were dominant with bat, ball and particularly in the field where they produced the stand-out fielding display of the tournament.

It is an area England have attempted to address with the appointment of fielding coach Richard Halsall a year ago, who previously worked with Sussex, but they accept it will be a long-term project to bring their standards up to those set by South Africa.

‘‘We can see some of the fielding standards that are being set and certainly South Africa are one of the best fielding sides,’’ conceded Flower. ‘‘They aren’t carrying many passengers in the field.

‘‘South Africa have had a good fielding side for quite a while now. They have a few outstanding individuals in key positions and then the others can more than hold their own.’’ For all the disappointment surrounding England’s feeble display at Trent Bridge, Flower is confident the experience of playing a minimum of five matches in close proximity will help the side despite his desire to compete in the tournament.

‘‘We’re learning about ourselves as individuals and we’re also learning a lot about Twenty20 cricket,’’ explained Flower.

‘‘In terms of international experience – and when I say that I include world tournaments such as the IPL where you’ve got the best players in the world playing – we’re lacking some of the experience that the other top international sides have so we’re learning about this game as the tournament progresses.

‘‘These tournaments are without a doubt important to the team’s development, but in saying that this tournament’s about performance.

‘‘Development is something that will, without a doubt, happen in time and the level of learning will happen but ultimately it is about performance.

‘‘This is a World Cup and we want to win it in our home country and performance has to be our first priority while we try and learn and improve with each performance.’’ England’s next challenge is to overcome holders India and they are determined to continue an attacking brand of cricket, although Flower has underlined the need to play with aggression if they are to shock one of the fancied teams in the tournament.

‘‘India are a very good side and we respect them tremendously but we aren’t fearful of them,’’ added Flower. ‘‘We will play an attacking brand of Twenty20 when we face them.

‘‘We’re definitely not going to win this tournament by playing conservative cricket.

There’s a blend of attack and good decision-making that you’ve got to find.

‘‘It’s not just crash, bang, wallop all the time, there is a lot of thought that goes into that crash, bang, wallop and there is a skill to playing the right shot at the right time.’’ England are yet to finalise their line-up for tomorrow’s encounter, but Essex allrounder Graham Napier is an option having failed to play in the three games so far in the tournament.