Hosts England's hopes of reaching the semi-finals of the ICC Men’s World Cup were dealt a serious blow after they suffered a crushing defeat against Australia at Lord's today ©Getty Images

Hosts England's hopes of reaching the semi-finals at the International Cricket Council (ICC) Men’s World Cup were dealt a serious blow after they suffered a crushing defeat against Australia at Lord's today.

Captain Aaron Finch’s century, supplemented by nine wickets between Mitchell Starc and Jason Behrendorff, helped Australia to a 64-run win and moved them to the top of the standings with 12 points from their seven matches.

The loss for fourth-placed England means they now face the prospect of having to beat at least one, possibly both, of India and New Zealand – two unbeaten sides ranked above them – to secure a top-four finish and claim a semi-final berth. 

England captain Eoin Morgan elected to field but David Warner and Finch battled through to their third 100-plus partnership in the tournament to give Australia a strong base.

Warner fell to Moeen Ali after reaching another half-century in the tournament, while Finch kept himself ticking over and went on to bring up his 15th one-day international century from 116 balls in the 36th over.

The Australia skipper departed the very next ball after achieving the landmark, top-edging a hook shot off Jofra Archer to the hands of Chris Woakes.

From there, England’s bowlers fought back with regular breakthroughs, and some key errors from the Australians – the run-out of Marcus Stoinis a notable example – saw aspirations of registering a 300-plus score diminish.

A cameo of 38 from 27 balls from Alex Carey offered a bit of respite as Australia finished on 285-7.

England’s chase was rocked early on as Behrendorff bowled James Vince for a second-ball duck.

Things soon went from bad to worse, with the in-form Joe Root pinned on his pads by Starc, before Morgan and Jonny Bairstow followed to leave England 53-4.

Jos Buttler and Ben Stokes rebuilt with a 71-run stand before a superb running catch on the boundary by Usman Khawaja ended the stay of the former.

Woakes and Stokes lifted the mood of the Lord’s crowd with another productive partnership as the latter reached his third half-century of the tournament.

Starc then interrupted the English charge with an unplayable off-stump yorker to remove Stokes and from there, Australia took complete control of the match.

Behrendorff led the way with figures of 5-44 as England subsided to 221 all out.

The ICC Men's World Cup is due to continue tomorrow when New Zealand face Pakistan at Edgbaston in Birmingham.

Round-robin action is scheduled to run through to July 6.