England reach their Netherland

	Ashley Giles slinks away from another #pomnishambles for England © Getty Images  Enlarge
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After a winter of lows, England have reached their Netherland. Handed a generational thrashing in Australia, little was expected of the players selected to contest the World T20. Little is just what they delivered. The day after Ashley Giles had put forward his manifesto to become England's new head coach, the players he has coaxed and chivvied around the Caribbean and Bangladesh for the last six weeks put in a performance to suggest their bags had already been packed.

The mental baggage is likely to test the flight allowance. England have lost to Netherlands before, at the game's spiritual home, in the opening match of a major tournament. But defeat at the 2009 World T20 at least came down to the final ball. Here, the green shoots of a campaign that suggested tentative promise were mown down by a performance that resurrected and amplified the post-Ashes #pomnishambles jeers. Giles' chances of being ushered into power by the ECB as England's new head coach may have been damaged irrevocably.

Deprived of Joe Root and Ben Stokes by injury, not to mention the self-inflicted wound that is Kevin Pietersen's exclusion, England's batting during the tournament had provided surprising encouragement. They went into their final group game with an average and scoring rate higher than at any previous World T20; the lowest-ranked team left in the tournament exposed the lie to the damned statistics.

Alex Hales' century against Sri Lanka in a record run chase; Moeen Ali's delicate promise at No. 3; the return of Eoin Morgan to something like his best; Ravi Bopara's composure in the finishing role - England positives were taken away from them by a hot blast of Dutch courage. No one in the top seven managed to score at a run a ball, let alone stay at the crease for long, as Netherlands produced another diligent display and finally claimed the scalp they have craved ever since Peter Borren berated his team's poor form on the eve of the World T20.

England managed just four boundaries in their innings, one more than Netherlands amassed when dismissed for 39 - the lowest ever score in T20 internationals - little more than a week ago. There was no question about whose embarrassment should be more acute.

The pain for England's captain, Stuart Broad, must have been agonising. With his injured knee in need of lengthy rehabilitation, he elected to marshal his troops for one last time, perhaps hopeful of gleaning first-hand some more pointers as to England's way forward. There has been talk of learning more from defeat from victory; England can publish volumes after this. Broad hinted afterwards that the captaincy may not be in his possession for much longer.

"I'm not sure," he said of his future in the role. "We've got a few months and I've got an eight week rehab period with my knee to get right for Test cricket this summer. There are going to be decisions made right at the top over the next month or so and discussions will go on from there. I've thoroughly enjoyed doing the role over the past couple of years but today is extremely disappointing. It is a game we should have won."