The West Indies beat England by two wickets in the final for the Champions Trophy one-day cricket tournament with seven balls to spare on Saturday thanks to a record 71-run ninth-wicket partnership between Ian Bradshaw and Courtney Browne.
Set a target of 217 runs by England, the West Indies were struggling at 147 for eight before the remarkable turnaround at the Oval.
Bradshaw scored 34 runs and Browne added 35 -- both setting their best-ever one-day totals -- in fading light at The Oval to reach 218 for eight.
"It's a great achievement for a team that's been under a lot of pressure both in the test and one-day arena," West Indies captain Brian Lara said. "To come out after a very dismal summer and perform like this against an England team that's defeated us seven tests out of eight, is a tremendous effort."
Bradshaw and Browne had to score 12 runs from 12 balls to win. Alex Wharf was hit for 12 runs off the 49th over and Bradshaw hit his fifth boundary to edge the Windies to victory.
Browne and Bradshaw's innings was the highest ninth-wicket partnership for the West Indies in one-day cricket, bettering the 63 set by Malcolm Marshall and Joel Garner in Sydney on Feb. 6, 1985.
"They used their brains very, very cleverly, something you might not have seen from the West Indies of old," England captain Michael Vaughan said. "It's a real testament to them, that they kept their heads."
Andrew Flintoff took 3-38, including the key wickets of Ramnaresh Sarwan (5) and Lara (14), and Steve Harmison took 2-34, but England's bowlers couldn't remove the stubborn tailenders.
"We're obviously gutted to lose such a huge game, a final; something England's never achieved before is to pick up a one-day trophy," Vaughan said.
"But you look at the bigger picture and the way we've played over the last couple of weeks, I think the guys can be very proud of themselves."
Lara won the toss and put England into bat. Marcus Trescothick scored 104 to help England reach its total before being run out.
West Indies medium pace bowler Wavell Hinds took 3-24 -- his career-best figures for one-day cricket -- and bowled three maidens in his 10 overs.
Lara, playing despite being hit on the back of the neck by a Shoaib Akhtar bouncer in the semifinal against Pakistan three days ago, took three catches and contributed to Trescothick's run out.
The match was played in front of a sellout crowd in overcast, cool conditions.
"I'm so proud of this group of guys, we've been battered, not just on the field, but by the media and a lot of people and I think they showed a lot of character," Lara said. "It could be the start of something really great. I hope we've got better things to come in the future."
The West Indies started confidently in its run chase, racing to 18 after three overs. Vikram Solanki made an early breakthrough, jumping to catch Hinds at point for three.
Andrew Strauss took a diving one-armed catch in the slips to dismiss Sarwan and leave the Windies at 35 for two. Eleven balls later, Chris Gayle was out, caught and bowled by Harmison for 23.
Lara made 14 before edging a Flintoff delivery to wicketkeeper Geraint Jones. The Windies were 72 for four and put on only eight runs before Flintoff removed Dwayne Bravo for zero. Ryan Hinds was caught behind for eight and Paul Collingwood took the wickets of Ricardo Powell (16) and Chanderpaul (47).
At 43 overs and with light fading, Browne and Bradshaw decided to continue. Bradshaw, who took bowling figures of 2-54, earned man-of-the-match honors.
Trescothick reached his eighth one-day century in the 46th over with a single to long off, having hit 13 fours. He was run out in the 47th over with England on 211 for six with Lara throwing for Gayle to take off the bails.
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