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England's third straight defeat in the Coca-Cola Cup under the Sharjah floodlights yesterday has rendered today's final round-robin game against Pakistan irrelevant, and the players will be on an early flight home tomorrow.

Left behind will be a small contingent of English supporters - more of a Barmy Platoon than a Barmy Army - who were once again left wondering whether 'barmy' is a strong enough description for anyone certifiable enough to spend money following England abroad.

At least the players will have a spot of extra time to peruse their World Cup contracts, which finally arrived today and must be signed by April 26. England will receive around £60,000 for winning the trophy, and about £18,000 if they make an early exit. Quite a few England players have been grumbling that they're not being paid what they're worth, and it's hard to argue with that. If they were, they'd be on the same sort of income as an ECB tea lady.

Chasing 240 to win, England slipped to 66 for four in the 17th over, and would have been in a desperate state had Nick Knight not been dropped at slip off Javagal Srinath when he had made 12. The Warwickshire left-hander went on to make a rousing 84 off 83 balls, before dragging an ugly legside smear at Anil Kumble's near long-hop into his stumps.

Alec Stewart was unlucky to get a dubious lbw decision, though having scratched out two in 21 balls India were almost as unhappy with the decision as England. Mark Ealham, promoted to give it a bash while the first 15-over fielding restrictions were in place, was run out by the length of the pitch, and Graeme Hick succumbed to a leg-side stumping.

Knight struck six fours and four sixes, but his dismissal left England 125 for five in the 29th over, and it became 131 for six when Andrew Flintoff was run out after being sent back by Graeme Thorpe.

If there was a logical reason behind Neil Fairbrother, England's best one-day player, being held back until No 8, it escaped most observers, and when he was bowled by Venkatesh Prasad with 56 still needed off eight overs, the situation deteri- orated from difficult to desperate.

With Thorpe still there a glimmer of hope remained, but having just launched Srinath for a leg-side six to bring the target down to 21 off 16 balls, Thorpe (79 from 87 balls) was stumped charging down the pitch to left-arm spinner Sunil Joshi.

Remarkably, Gough raised England's hopes again by hitting Srinath for six in the penultimate over, but, with the additional worry of taking the strike from last man Fraser, Gough then charged down from the non-striker's end for an impossible single. Fraser was run out leaving England 10 runs short with seven balls remaining.

England made two changes from the side beaten in the first India game on Friday, bringing in Angus Fraser for Alan Mullally, who had a rib strain, and Vince Wells for Robert Croft. One change they might have made, but didn't, was in electing someone other than Stewart to conduct the toss - and the captain duly lost it for the 14th time in his last 19.

Fielding first was not ideal, despite a less debilitating temperature (82F) than in earlier matches, but with the Indians still feeling the side-effects of their recent bout of food poisoning, their early batting was as lethargic as it had been in the first game between the sides. It seemed ironic that it should be India rather than England (on what is virtually home territory) suffering from 'Delhi Belly', but there again, some years ago, the entire Sri Lankan team was laid low after a visiting a fish and chip emporium in the north of England.

India's pawky progress was partly due to some typically accurate bowling from Angus Fraser, who bowled his first eight overs straight through for only 15 runs, and this time there was no Mohammad Azharuddin to come in and step up the pace.

Azhar was still feeling a toe injury sustained during Friday's 74 not out, and was replaced by Vinod Kambli, with Ajit Jajeda taking over as captain. Jajeda was the part-time bowler who finished off England on Friday with three wickets in five balls.

Kambli, who is not in India's World Cup squad, half pulled his side round from a start of 16 for two, but his 23 still occupied 52 balls, and for the first 15 overs India appeared to be operating with pinch-blockers rather than pinch-hitters.

Rahul Drahid played pretty well for his 63 until Fairbrother ran him out, but until Jajeda slogged and mis-hit his way to a half-century in the closing overs, England seemed set to chase a more manageable total. There again, these days, there seems to be no opposition total small enough to insure against an England cock-up.