England missed the chance to remove one of their biggest rivals for the ICC World Twenty20 title after Australia bounced back to claim a crushing win at Newlands.

Knowing victory would secure their passage to the next stage and also eliminate Australia, England had a golden chance to open up the whole tournament by dismissing the 50-over world champions.

But perhaps spurred on by Kevin Pietersen's comments that he was relishing the chance to ''humiliate'' them, Australia were stung into a performance and completed an emphatic eight wickets victory with 31 balls to spare.

Just 48 hours after they suffered a shock five wickets defeat to Zimbabwe, Australia vented the full force of their embarrassment on England by dismissing them for their lowest ever Twenty20 total of 135 - beating the 144 for nine they were restricted to at Sydney in January the last time the two sides met in this format.

Facing a lowly total, Australia completed their victory in style with Matthew Hayden hammering an unbeaten 67 off 43 balls, which included 11 fours and a six, to leave England and the tournament in no doubt about who the team to fear will be in the second stage.

England's innings was given a shaky start with openers Darren Maddy and Matt Prior struggling to score during the early overs of fielding restrictions.

Restricted by the accuracy of Nathan Bracken and Brett Lee with the new ball, it left England taking increasing risks and provoked a mini top order collapse with three wickets falling in as many overs.

Matt Prior struggled to 17 off as many balls before becoming the first casualty, trying to drive Mitchell Johnson over the top and being caught at mid-on in the fifth over.

With Darren Maddy failing to score at anything like the required rate, it ensured England managed only 35 runs from the six overs of fielding restrictions and undermined their task for the remainder of the innings.

Luke Wright suffered his third successive single figure score in England colours by edging Johnson behind two overs later and Maddy, who struggled to 20 off 20 balls, mistimed an attempted drive off Stuart Clark to mid-off.

It took England 53 balls just to bring up their first 50 but unlike the previous evening, when Kevin Pietersen and Paul Collingwood had combined in a 100-run stand off 53 balls, this time they could not rely on their middle pair to rescue the innings.

Collingwood fell for 19 just one ball after hitting a free hit for six over mid-wicket, given lbw to a Lee full toss but while Pietersen was at the crease England still had hope of reaching a competitive total.

Pietersen's demise three overs later, bowled by a quicker delivery from Bracken for 20, seemed to signal the end of England's hopes at 97 for five with the out-of-form Andrew Flintoff and Owais Shah at the crease.

Flintoff lifted hopes briefly with 31 off 19 balls and shared in a 30-run stand with Shah which had England dreaming of reaching a competitive total of around 150.

But attempting to steer a short ball from Johnson over the slips, Flintoff mistimed the shot and was caught by Stuart Clarke and Shah followed in the next over when he was caught in the deep off Bracken, who finished with impressive figures of three for 16.

Needing an outstanding bowling display to prevent a hammering, England struggled from the start with Flintoff clearly struggling with his left ankle but battling through to claim one for 25.

But having decided to discard James Anderson in favour of Twenty20 specialist James Kirtley, England needed him to enjoy a vibrant return and instead he was restricted to one over which was mercilessly hammered for 17 runs.

Stuart Broad also struggled and his three overs were hammered for 23 as Hayden and Adam Gilchrist forged a 78-run stand in 8.2 overs without giving a hint of a chance.

Their stand was broken with Gilchrist driving Chris Schofield's second ball to Flintoff at long on and Ponting gave the Lancashire all-rounder a sharp return catch.

They were the only moments of success for England, however, as Australia romped into the next round and declared themselves as a major threat for the remainder of the tournament.

For more World Twenty20 reaction don't miss tomorrow's Daily Echo.