IT’S one thing to lose to England. It’s another when they start pitying us.

But that’s just how far Australia has fallen in one-day cricket after suffering a world-record flogging at the hands of England at Trent Bridge today.

“I felt sorry for the Australians at one point and I never thought I would say that about the Australian cricket team,” former England spinner Graeme Swann said.

As expected, there were also plenty of Poms who were happy to rub our noses in it.

“I hope England enforce the follow on,” gleefully tweeted former England captain Michael Vaughan.

England’s No. 1 ranked ODI outfit is flying. It has an unbeatable 3-0 lead in the five-match series and the hoopla around it is big as the longest of the 21 sixes it smashed at Nottingham.

“Every team around the world would now think, ‘Oh, my god, England in England … they are the best in the world, we have got to play out of our skins to beat them. How do you beat a team like that?’,” Swann said on BBC Radio.

“This brilliant performance today, even though it’s a year out (from the World Cup) … it’s put a marker down to the rest of the world where everyone now will not want to play against England.”

Funnily enough, England’s six-run loss to minnow Scotland on June 10 has been forgotten by the home side and its fans!

And it’s such a result that gives Australia hope.

For if a side that’s missing first-choice players Steven Smith, Mitchell Starc, David Warner, Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Marsh can somehow beat England in one of the two remaining games this series, then that would be as big a result as the pounding we endured today.