England lost to South Africa by 229 runs at the Wankhede stadium, their biggest ODI defeat ever, to leave their World Cup title defence in tatters.

After their loss to Afghanistan in Delhi, England faced a near must-win fixture against South Africa, who were also coming off the back of a shock loss to the Netherlands. However, the match started badly for the defending champions, with Reece Topley having to leave the field injured during the seventh over of the game after they chose to field. Adil Rashid was also unwell, but bowled his ten overs given the limited alternative bowling options England had in their XI.

Chris Woakes, Sam Curran and Liam Livingstone had all missed out on the starting line-up, with Ben Stokes back in and David Willey and Gus Atkinson making their tournament debuts. With 15 overs to go in South Africa’s innings, the Proteas were 233-4 and England’s hopes of chasing a defendable total were still intact.

But a 61-ball century from Heinrich Klaasen and a maiden ODI fifty from Marco Jansen took those hopes away. South Africa ended up posting 399-7 for England to chase – the most runs England have ever conceded in an ODI.

Faced with a massive chase, England then lost their first three wickets for 24 runs. Stokes was then out for five, caught and bowled by Kagiso Rabada and they spiralled to 100-8.

Topley won’t bat, and it’s all over in Mumbai.

South Africa win by 229 runs, and it could have been even worse for England had Wood and Atkinson not added 70 in 32 balls for the ninth wicket!

A shocking day for England.#ENGvSA #CWC23 pic.twitter.com/MhsgpJdI2A

— Wisden (@WisdenCricket) October 21, 2023

The ninth wicket partnership was the only ray of hope, with Mark Wood and Gus Atkinson putting on 70 runs off 32 balls – a record for the ninth wicket for England. Topley did not come out to bat, England’s innings ending when Atkinson was bowled by Keshav Maharaj.

England now sit second bottom on the table, a margin of 0.002 separating them and net run rate. They now almost certainly need to win all five of their remaining games to qualify for the semi-finals.

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