England's hopes of winning their first World Cup in the tournament's 36-year history were given a severe beating by a burly Irishman with a mop of dyed pink hair and an oversized bat in his hand.
Kevin O'Brien smashed the fastest ever century in the tournament to propel Ireland to a shock three-wicket win over England on Wednesday and severely dent their hopes of progressing to the second round of the tournament.
England will have to do some serious soul searching and some more serious damage control to keep their dream alive after a scrappy win against the Netherlands, a dramatic tie with India and the morale-shattering loss to the Irish.
One more slip-up and their chance to move into the quarter-final stages could disappear just as quickly as O'Brien made the ball disappear during his incredible knock.
To make matters worse, the road ahead is strewn with stern tests in the form of the clinical South Africans, the resurgent West Indies and the Bangladeshis' indomitable spirit. That is just to get to the last eight.
Captain Andrew Strauss has been harping that only "smart cricket" will see his team through to the latter stages, but on his 34th birthday, he would have been painfully aware that his team were barely playing intelligible cricket.
England's biggest disappointment has been the form of their frontline bowlers.
The core of the same attack that so memorably won them the Ashes a couple of months back have been taken apart by two associate nations, Netherlands (292-6) and Ireland (329-7), in between a mauling by India's batsman (338).
These scores are three of their four highest World Cup totals conceded and barring the odd moment of individual brilliance, the bowling has been without any ideas to contain marauding batsmen on the flat pitches in the subcontinent.
The main culprit has been their strike bowler James Anderson who alone has conceded over a fifth of the runs with just two wickets to show for his efforts. In contrast, the unassuming Lancastrian took 24 wickets in the Ashes.
Stuart Broad and Tim Bresnan have been charging in and bowling as fast as possible using variations but have been unable to trouble the batsmen as centurions Ryan ten Doeschate and O'Brien showed.
Graeme Swann has performed admirably so far but without any support in either the fast bowling or spin departments, the off-spinner has too much on his shoulders.
Sometimes a bowler going through a lean spell can be buoyed by some smart fielding, but in England's case their butter-fingered fielders serve only to make the shoulders of the bowlers droop further.
Every time the ball goes up in the air, English fans close their eyes and send up a prayer.
Their batting, on the other hand, has been their strong point having chased down the 292, matched the 338 and set a 327 run target, with the entire top order being among the runs, led by Strauss.
However for two matches in a row, England have struggled with the batting powerplay and their finishing has been far from clinical despite solid foundations being laid.
Strauss knows that is it is time England stopped harping on about `smart cricket' and reverted to some `back-to-the-basics' cricket.
"The equation is pretty simple now. We can't afford any slip-ups and have to go out there and deliver."
