"It was an unbelievable game, Yuvraj's innings was some of the best striking I have ever seen. I have never seen consistent hitting like that, and the beauty of it all was that he wasn't hitting in the same area," the England skipper said. "He was hitting it all over the park. With that backswing, the way he connected the ball -- it was just sweet, sweet timing.

"I think it was just a matter of time before an over like that happened in Twenty20 cricket. Throughout the tournament, we have bowled well, but here, the Indian batsmen got hold of us. Even so, we showed a lot of character and gave it a good go with the bat when we could so easily have rolled over."

Collingwood tacitly agreed that England might have got their squad selection wrong. "The tournament has been a disappointment in results terms. But we have learnt a lot about the personnel, about the players in the team. If you look around the teams, it is the experienced players — the Jayasuriyas, the Haydens, the Gilchrists — that have performed. That's going to be the key. It is important to have players in there who have played a lot and who know their games. Then again, who is to say that others who are not part of this team will have done better? We will never know."

England came here one of the favourties, and exited with just one win — against Zimbabwe — from five matches. "We weren't actually that far away from most other teams. It was only in the Australia game that we got hammered, in the other matches, there was just five to ten percent between the teams.

“Twenty20 is different in that you need to use the same skills but differently and at the right time. This competition and the results here will not hurt our one-day form when we travel to Sri Lanka later this month. It is will be a huge challenge, five one-dayers there, but we will go to Sri Lanka with confidence."

Collingwood acknowledged that Twenty20 was demanding for a captain. "It is definitely a tough game for a captain — changing fields, making bowling changes after almost every over takes a lot out of you. I might not have made too many runs, but I feel I am still in good nick."