Losing to Afghanistan would be 'horrendous'

Assistant coach Paul Farbrace says it will be "horrendous" for his struggling England side if they lose their final World Cup match to Afghanistan at the SCG on Friday.

Neither side has any chance of advancing to the quarters, but losing to Afghanistan would be the final indignity for an England side who has been the great underachievers of the tournament.

Heavily beaten by Australia, New Zealand and Sri Lanka, England lost their must-win match against Bangladesh earlier this week.

Highlights of Bangladesh's win over England

"If losing the other day to Bangladesh was terrible, we couldn't possibly imagine what it would be like if tomorrow goes against us ... because that would be horrendous," Farbrace said on Thursday.

"Our job now is to make sure we give ourselves the best chance, clear heads, and go and play proper cricket tomorrow."

Farbrace said the mood in the camp had been down since the loss to Bangladesh.

"The last two days have been pretty ordinary, really," Farbrace said.

"We've all felt the huge disappointment. We came here wanting to give it a go and really play some exciting cricket and we haven't done that.

"We got blown away in the first two games and I don't think we've really recovered from that.

"There has been a lot said about perhaps our nervousness and the tension that we're playing with.

"I think it's hard to argue against that. I think that's been the biggest disappointment over the last couple of days - thinking about what might have been.

"Practice yesterday was a bit subdued. It wasn't as good as it perhaps has been, and that isn't for anything other than the boys are still hurting from the other night and there is huge disappointment."

Afghanistan, who are ranked 12th in the world, six places below England, have exactly the same tournament record, four losses and a win over Scotland.

"We came here expecting to surprise somebody, we nearly got it right with Sri Lanka," Afghanistan's English coach Andy Moles said.

"If we can be consistent and do the things well at the right times, I still believe that we have a shot in us.

"But we'll have to be at our very best and we'll need England to be below par."

Afghanistan paceman Hamid Hassan dismissed reports that some of his side had been scared playing Australia and made it clear they weren't fearful of England.

"No fears, no nothing," Hassan said.

"We have to play always brave, so we'll play tomorrow brave. Afghan is never scared."