England's players had played more Twenty20 cricket than any of their rivals ahead of the first ICC World Twenty20 but they were not able to turn this experience into success in South Africa.

They began well enough with a comfortable 50-run victory over Zimbabwe with Kevin Pietersen hitting a typically flamboyant 79 from 37 balls.

Against Australia in their next match though, England were restricted to 135 all out in their 20 overs and the opposition had no trouble knocking off the runs.

The victory over Zimbabwe had been enough to secure qualification to the Super Eights but there were to be no further victories. First South Africa beat them by 19 runs with Albie Morkel's 43 runs in 20 balls changing the match and the veteran Shaun Pollock putting in a vintage performance with the ball.

They went on to lose a tight match against New Zealand by five runs before falling 18 runs short against India.

The game against India is one which the side would like to forget. Yuvraj Singh set the Kingsmead Cricket Ground alight with an amazing show of power hitting, becoming the first man in the history of Twenty20 cricket to hit six sixes in an over. England fast bowler Stuart Broad was at the receiving end of man of the match Yuvraj Singh's whiplash blade.

England will be expecting to do better than their solitary victory over Zimbabwe when they host the tournament in 2009. Kevin Pietersen will be pivotal and there will be many fingers crossed that Andrew Flintoff can find his best form with both bat and ball before the event.