England recorded their lowest total in a Twenty20 international as South Africa bowled them out for just 111 before easing to a seven-wicket win in the World Cup second round match on Thursday.

Although England did well to contain South Africa in reply, ultimately they were never able to defend their paltry score as the Proteas reached 114 for three with 10 balls to spare.

England, who crashed to an embarrassing loss to the Netherlands in the tournament opener on Friday before thrashing Pakistan, again showed inconsistency in their 19th Twenty20 match.

Paul Collingwood's team were on only 47 for three at the halfway stage and did not register 100 until the 18th over.

Ravi Bopara (2), Luke Wright (1) and Kevin Pietersen (19) were all back in the pavilion even before the Powerplay period was over.

Left-arm seam bowler Wayne Parnell, 19, claimed three for 14 from his 3.5 overs and bowled tail-enders Stuart Broad and James Anderson with the last two balls of England's innings.

Owais Shah top-scored with 38 from 33 balls, but his innings lacked intensity. He scored almost half his runs in one over. Shah took 15 from the 12th over bowled by Roelof van der Merwe, including a six over long off.

But just as England looked to increase their run rate they slumped from 78 for three to 92 for eight.

Collingwood himself contributed only 19 before being cleaned up by Jacques Kallis.

The captain's dismissal started a slide that stopped only when England had no batsmen left.

"A good total on that wicket was more like 150," England captain Paul Collingwood later told reporters.

"It was a pretty good deck, we lost early wickets in the first six overs and it put us behind the eight ball. They really proved why they are the favourites in the competition.

"They set the standards with the fielding and the bowling. They put us under a lot of pressure to rebuild the innings. 111 was never really going to be enough."

Jacques Kallis batted patiently for his 57 not out.

His 49-ball unbeaten kock contained five hits to the fence and a huge one over it.

He was named the man-of-the-match for his efforts.

"We lost the toss but wanted to put in an intense performance with the ball and the bowlers led the way, the fielders were great and we just created a lot of pressure on England and squeezed them," Smith said.

"It was clinically finished off by Jacques and the boys."

Fittingly, South Africa seamer Albie Morkel earlier bowled the first maiden (which included a wicket) of the tournament.