Graham Thorpe's wonderfully crisp timing, Matthew Fleming's latent talent and indomitable spirit, and the sheer raggedness of the West Indian bowling and fielding, handicapped as they were by a heavy dew, enabled England to pull off a three-wicket victory all the more thrilling for its unexpectedness.
The game and Champions' Trophy seemed beyond the reach even of this feisty team when Mark Ealham, having led the defence in the field with another immaculate spell of bowling to check a rollicking start by the West Indies, took a desperate heave at a ball from Courtney Walsh in the 41st over, leaving Thorpe and Fleming to make a further 71 with only four more wickets in hand.
Their response was heroic: 70 off seven overs at the end of a competition in which five an over by the side batting second had proved difficult for everyone. Several of the 13 no-balls and five wides bowled overall by the West Indians came in this period but Thorpe, hitherto confining himself mainly to skilful deflections behind the wicket, began to extend his range - there were only three fours in his 62-ball fifty - and Fleming went for the bull's-eye with booming drives and ruddy-faced fury.
The scores were level when finally he lost his cool and was run out but Dougie Brown had the luxury of 12 balls to get the remaining run and nicked the first of them to the third-man boundary.
His namesake, Alistair, had fallen to a low catch at cover in the fourth over and although Alec Stewart, playing with handsome command once more, helped Nick Knight put on 75 for the second wicket, these two and Graeme Hick fell between the 21st and 25th overs, Stewart to a ball which skidded through low from Carl Hooper.
Thorpe and Adam Hollioake put on 45 for the fifth wicket but it took them 12 overs to do so against tight bowling from Hooper in particular, and when Hollioake was stumped by the injured David Williams and Ealham followed four overs later the West Indies seemed sure to take significant consolation after their miserable tour of Pakistan.
They had got away to a rattling start at a ground which was only half full. Stuart Williams, the compact right-hander from Nevis who has scored more runs than anyone in the tournament, got the innings going at a merry clip with the immaculate Shivnarine Chanderpaul. There were no easy pickings for Dougie Brown this time; rather 17 runs off his third over including two leg-side fours and a third flat-batted straight by Williams, followed by a thump back over the bowler's head by Chanderpaul.
The fifty came up in the eighth but Ealham once again applied the most effective brake on the scoring. The familiar thump down of his left foot in delivery disguised a variety of paces but the key to his economy was the precision with which he aimed the ball straight and a fraction short of a length.
Robert Croft joined him from the Pavilion End as soon as the 15 overs had been completed: total 76 for no wicket. The next 10 overs produced a mere 29 runs, the first of the two decisive phases of the game. In the 22nd, Williams perished at long-on from a flat, fierce drive which Ali Brown never looked like missing; in the 23rd, Brian Lara, over-balancing a fraction as Ealham beat his forward defensive, was stumped by Stewart.
Chanderpaul pressed on steadily and Hooper worked the ball around calmly but England's fielding was again brilliant and until Phil Simmons played a muscular innings in the closing overs, the medium-pacers, especially Ealham and Fleming, held the batsmen on a tight leash. Fleming ran out Chanderpaul (76 off 109 balls) with a stunning dive at cover point followed by a direct hit from a prone position and then claimed two plumb lbws in an over and should probably have been granted a third.
Lewis escaped to make 16 off 19 balls but Rose was run out by another direct hit, this time by Croft, before the jockey-sized David Williams helped the giant Simmons to garner 35 from the last five overs. Fours squeezed to cover and driven back past Fleming in the final over left England to score the second-highest total by a side batting second, and that they managed it does every member of the team immense credit. Hard work and togetherness have shown the way to the side who leave for the West Indies on Jan 3.
This was a tournament professionally run. Asif Iqbal, cricket co-ordinator here from the earliest days, deserves much of the credit for that. If he was disappointed that the India v Pakistan final craved by the majority of the local population did not come to pass, Asif was not showing it. ``It's good that this was a truly international event,'' he said.
The Indian selectors have reacted to their three defeats by dropping six of their side: Kumble, Kuruvilla, Dravid, Prasad, Karim, who played well, and Kambli, who did not play.
The players of all the competing nations over the last 10 days might wonder at the division of the spoils: six distinguished former cricketers received $210,000 (£130,000) between them; 48 current players, the ones generating the profits after all, had a total prize fund of $85,000.
That will not worry Hollioake's side. They have given themselves and the supporters of English cricket a heartening Christmas present.