England salvaged a modicum of pride from a miserable Cricket World Cup campaign with a nine-wicket victory over Afghanistan in a Pool A match heavily affected by rain.
The adverse weather conditions at the SCG in Sydney meant that Afghanistan's innings was ended in the 37th over - with England reducing them to 111-7, Chris Jordan returning 2-13 off 6.2 overs.
When play finally resumed, England were set a revised target of 101 from 25 overs via the Duckworth-Lewis method - a total reached with 41 balls remaining thanks largely to an opening stand of 83 from Alex Hales (37) and Ian Bell (52 not out).
The victory will do little stop the calls for an overhaul of England's hierarchy, with captain Eoin Morgan and Peter Moores bearing the brunt of criticism for a tournament that produced heavy defeats to Australia, New Zealand and Sri Lanka before a 15-run loss to Bangladesh earlier this week confirmed their exit.
England at least managed to avoid further embarrassment in their first one-day international against Afghanistan and played with the freedom of a team already eliminated from the competition.
The under-pressure James Anderson (1-18) made the early breakthrough to dismiss opener Nawroz Mangal (4), while Javed Ahmadi (7) fell to Stuart Broad (1-18).
Jordan then had Afsar Zazai (6) and Samiullah Shenwari (7) toiling, the former nicking behind to Jos Buttler, before the latter got a thick edge on a delivery that found Morgan at point.
Shafiqullah (30) put on partnerships of 31 and 28 with Nasir Jamal (17) and Mohammad Nabi (16), but the scoreboard was seldom troubled before the downpours arrived and threatened to put an end to the match.
England set about reaching their target after the resumption of play, and Hales was handed an early reprieve when he was dropped by Najibullah Zadran at backward point in just third ball of the innings, before the England opener was put down by the same fielder in the fifth over.
Those drops were duly punished by Hales and Bell who found the boundary 11 times between them.
Hales fell to Hamid Hassan in the 14th over, but James Taylor (8 not out) ably assisted Bell as England eased to their target.