Jan-Berrie Burger goes on the attack (Getty Images).

By Myles Hodgson, PA Sport Cricket Correspondent, Port Elizabeth

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England escaped the biggest humiliation in their history when they scraped past a Namibia side comprising a collection of part-time cricketers to record their second victory of the World Cup.

Expecting to use the fixture to boost their run-rate, a factor which could become important in deciding qualification for the Super Sixes stage of the tournament, England were instead given the fright of their lives at St George's Park before completing a 55-run triumph.

Hampered by injuries which forced the withdrawal of captain Nasser Hussain prior to the start of the match with a stiff neck and led to Ian Blackwell being taken off with a bad back, had England lost today's match with Namibia it would almost certainly have led to their early elimination from the World Cup for a second successive tournament.

It would also have ranked alongside any of England's worst sporting defeats, including their 1992 cricket World Cup defeat to Zimbabwe, their soccer counterparts' 1-0 loss to USA in 1950 and the humiliating 3-1 friendly loss to Australia at Upton Park last week.

With the ever-present threat of rain, which opened up the possibility of the Duckworth-Lewis method of calculation deciding the outcome, hanging over the match, it ensured Namibia remained in the contest for the majority of their reply to England's 272 while hard-hitting student Jan-Berry Burger remained at the crease.

His classy innings, hitting 85 off only 86 balls including a six and 10 other boundaries, made a mockery of Namibia's recent form in South Africa's domestic one-day tournament, when they failed to reach 100 in two of their four matches, and England's confident hope they could use the fixture to boost their net run-rate.

Demonstrating the stroke play which enabled him to hit 110 at a run a ball against Kenya in Nairobi recently, Burger terrorised an England attack forced to call upon Michael Vaughan's off-spin in the absence of Blackwell's tidy left-arm spin.

His innings must have been all the more frustrating for England after he had been missed on 17 when he pulled Andrew Caddick straight to substitute fielder Matthew Hoggard at square leg, but jumping at full stretch all he could do was parry the ball over his head.

Hoggard's error was hardly in the same league as Herschelle Gibbs' famous drop of Steve Waugh in the 1999 World Cup semi-final at Headingley, which enabled the Australian captain to score a century and guide his side into the Lord's final, but for a time it looked like it could have just as big an impact on the result.

Hitting powerfully throughout his innings by the time Burger was out in the 29th over, pushing strongly at a cleverly-disguised slower ball from Craig White which looped up to give Paul Collingwood a diving catch at cover, Namibia were ahead on Duckworth-Lewis calculations if the weather had broken imminently.

But his demise seemed to sap all confidence from the Namibian line-up and with the rain failing to arrive when they needed it most, their innings collapsed with England capturing their last six wickets for 26 runs in seven overs to restrict them to 217 for nine in reply.

Forced into a slight reshuffle because of Hussain's neck injury, which they hope he will be able to shrug off in time for Saturday's day-night encounter with Pakistan in Cape Town, England were denied a far more imposing total by a succession of loose shots and misjudgements.

Opener Nick Knight set the tone by pulling straight to mid-wicket and give doctor and part-time seamer Rudi van Vuuren the first of five wickets and was quickly followed by Vaughan attempting an identical shot and suffering the same result.

At least England had the consolation of watching opener Marcus Trescothick return to form after a largely barren winter, claiming only his fourth half-century in his last 14 one-day internationals to help his side overcome the loss of those two early wickets.

Trescothick was given a slight reprieve in only the second over when he completely mis-judged an attempted pull and was almost caught behind off the glove, but recovered to hit a six and eight other boundaries and forged a crucial 77-run partnership with stand-in captain Alec Stewart.

Their aggressive response spread through the team with Trescothick falling to a mis-timed sweep and Stewart picking out a fielder on the mid-wicket boundary after hitting 60 off 70 balls.

Yet despite that strong foundation, England once again squandered the opportunity and, with their net run-rate in mind, committed the cardinal error of not even being able to bat out their overs with last man Andrew Caddick being dismissed off the final ball to earn van Vuuren figures of five for 43.

As impressive as his efforts were it was Jan-Berry Burger who claimed the man-of-the-match award having given England a painful reminder of the disciplines required if they are to make further progress from Pool A by overcoming their final three opponents - Pakistan, India and world champions Australia - over the next 11 days.