Stuart Broad's side were bowled out for just 88 to lose by a humiliating 45 runs to their Associate opposition, neatly capping off a farcical last four months.
"Shambolic" and "simply dreadful" were just two of the terms which BBC correspondent Jonathan Agnew used to describe the debacle.
And, in fairness, Broad acknowledged his team had "let the fans here and English cricket fans back home down", adding: "It's been a horrendous winter."
Strangely, though, coach Ashley Giles - who has been touted to replace Andy Flower in the Test job - put the defeat down to complacency.
But that does not quite work. For, as former skipper and current Sky commentator Michael Atherton pointed out, the accusation of complacency suggests England had something to be complacent about in the first place, which is certainly not the case.
Whitewashed in the Ashes, England arrived in Bangladesh for this tournament in terrible form in the shortest form of the game, too.
It was to some surprise, then, that the 2010 champions actually performed pretty creditably in some aspects of their play in the first three matches, despite their early exit.
Denied by the vagaries of the Duckworth-Lewis method against New Zealand in their opener, England then recovered from 0-2 after one over to record their highest successful run-chase in T20 history and beat Sri Lanka by six wickets.
That kept hopes of progression alive for the third game against South Africa. This was another tightly-contested affair but the Proteas ultimately prevailed by three runs.
No blame could be apportioned to the batsmen who followed up their score of 190 against the Sri Lankans with 193 against the South Africans.
However, the death bowling in both of those games was abysmal. Jade Dernbach, in particular, had a torturous time with 26 coming off his last over against South Africa.
It was an over which effectively put England out of the tournament, giving them that little bit too much to chase.
And it also further damaged Dernbach's own stats as he now bears an economy rate which, at 8.71 runs per over, is the joint-worst in international Twenty20 history.
Nothing quite compares to what is actually a second consecutive T20 defeat to the Dutch, though.
Yes, that is two losses in a row to the Netherlands at a form of cricket - but, while the 2009 shock could be genuinely put down to a bad day at the office, the outlook now is much gloomier.
Elected to field having won the toss in an attempt to restrict the minnows, the Netherlands made a fast start to reach 32-0 after three overs.
From then on, though, England - without Dernbach - bowled better and the Associates slipped from 84-1 to 133-5 by the end of their innings.
It was an eminently gettable target - but the troubles began almost straight away with openers Michael Lumb and the hero against Sri Lanka, Alex Hales, out in consecutive overs.
Then, the run rate began to stall as wickets arrived with depressing regularity. Eoin Morgan was caught at slip before Moeen Ali lazily stroked the ball to mid-off.
England were 32-4 but, with Jos Buttler and Ravi Bopara at the crease, they still had two men who could produce individual fireworks to win the game.
It quickly became apparent, though, that this wasn't going to be the case when Buttler holed out and his replacement Tim Bresnan was comfortably run out. 52-6.
Bopara was the only recognised batsman left and the Essex man top scored with 18 before he failed with a big shot of his own. And that just left the tail whose resistance was predictably short-lived.
They could only add 14 runs for the final three wickets as James Tredwell finished the circus act in appropriate fashion in another comical run out.
With the dislodging of the bails for the final time this winter, England had hit rock bottom.
The beginning of the match report from the excellent George Dobell of Cricinfo does well to sum up the context of this humiliation.
He wrote: "There is a great deal of competition for the lowest point in the history
of English cricket.
"They have been defeated by Ireland,
bowled out by a chicken farmer in Zimbabwe and whitewashed by India,
West Indies and Australia. They were even knocked out of the World Cup
they hosted in 1999 before the theme song was released.
"But defeat at the hands of Netherlands in Chittagong ranks among the worst of England's defeats. In a winter stuffed with setbacks and disappointment, England left the most ignominious moment until last."
Indeed, England could be said to have come full circle - 1999 was the last time it felt as bad as this with that early World Cup exit followed by a Test series defeat to New Zealand at home.
Back then, England slowly rebuilt so that, by 2004-05, a confident team under Michael Vaughan's captaincy could beat all-comers at home, including Australia for the first time in 18 years.
In between, Nasser Hussain skippered the first steps to recovery - and perhaps he could do something similar again this time.
Of course, the ECB would have to convince Hussain to leave the cosiness of the Sky studio and the in-house promotion of Giles to Test coach is much less hassle.
But that shouldn't be the determining factor in the selection of the head of the national side, and regretfully the uninspiring Giles just does not cut it.
Remember, this match effectively forms part of his portfolio for a job interview ahead of the first Test against Sri Lanka in June.
Surely, the ECB will have to look elsewhere.
WORLD T20 RESULTS
Bangladesh and Netherlands qualified from preliminary tournament
Group One
| Date | Venue | Result |
| 22 Mar | Chittagong | SRI LANKA 165-7 beat SOUTH AFRICA 160-8 by five runs |
| 22 Mar | NEW ZEALAND 52-1 beat ENGLAND 172-6 by nine runs (D/L) | |
| 24 Mar | SOUTH AFRICA 170-6 beat NEW ZEALAND 168-8 by two runs | |
| 24 Mar | SRI LANKA 40-1 beat NETHERLANDS 39 by nine wickets | |
| 27 Mar | SOUTH AFRICA 145-9 beat NETHERLANDS 139 by six runs | |
| 27 Mar | ENGLAND 190-4 beat SRI LANKA 189-4 by six wickets | |
| 29 Mar | NEW ZEALAND 152-4 beat NETHERLANDS 151-4 by six wickets | |
| 29 Mar | SOUTH AFRICA 196-5 beat ENGLAND 193-7 by three runs | |
| 31 Mar | NETHERLANDS 133-5 beat ENGLAND 88 by 45 runs | |
| 31 Mar | SRI LANKA 119 beat NEW ZEALAND 60 by 59 runs |
| Group One | W | L | RR | Pts |
| (Q) SRI LANKA | 3 | 1 | 2.23 | 6 |
| (Q) SOUTH AFRICA | 3 | 1 | 0.07 | 6 |
| New Zealand | 2 | 2 | -0.68 | 4 |
| England | 1 | 3 | -0.78 | 2 |
| Netherlands | 1 | 3 | -0.87 | 2 |
Group Two
| Date | Venue | Result |
| 21 Mar | Mirpur | INDIA 131-3 beat PAKISTAN 130-7 by seven wickets |
| 23 Mar | PAKISTAN 191-5 beat AUSTRALIA 175 by 16 runs | |
| 23 Mar | INDIA 130-3 beat WEST INDIES 129-7 by seven wickets | |
| 25 Mar | WEST INDIES 171-7 beat BANGLADESH 98 by 73 runs | |
| 28 Mar | WEST INDIES 179-4 beat AUSTRALIA 178-8 by six wickets | |
| 28 Mar | INDIA 141-2 beat BANGLADESH 138-7 by eight wickets | |
| 30 Mar | PAKISTAN 190-5 beat BANGLADESH 140-7 by 50 runs | |
| 30 Mar | INDIA 159-7 beat AUSTRALIA 86 by 73 runs | |
| 1 Apr | AUSTRALIA 158-3 beat BANGLADESH 153-5 by seven wickets | |
| 1 Apr | WEST INDIES 166-6 beat PAKISTAN 82 by 84 runs |
| Group Two | W | L | RR | Pts |
| (Q) INDIA | 4 | 0 | 1.28 | 8 |
| (Q) WEST INDIES | 3 | 1 | 1.97 | 6 |
| Pakistan | 2 | 2 | -0.38 | 4 |
| Australia | 1 | 3 | -0.86 | 2 |
| Bangladesh | 0 | 4 | -2.07 | 0 |
Semi finals
| Date | Venue | Result |
| 3 Apr | Mirpur | SRI LANKA 160-6 beat WEST INDIES 80-4 by 27 runs (D/L) |
| 4 Apr | INDIA 176-4 beat SOUTH AFRICA 172-4 by six wickets |
FINAL
| Date | Venue | Result |
| 6 Apr | Mirpur | SRI LANKA 134-4 beat INDIA 130-4 by six wickets |
WOMEN'S FINAL
| Date | Venue | Result |
| 6 Apr | Mirpur | AUSTRALIA 106-4 beat ENGLAND 105-8 by six wickets |
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