England threw away a golden opportunity to win their first global one-day title in an extraordinary climax at Edgbaston, more Indian Premier League thriller than Champions Trophy final.

Four times before now, England have lost major finals in what is supposed to be the longer form of the limited overs game but none of them have been quite like this at a Birmingham ground transformed into the most Indian of venues.

What should have been their fifth 50- or 60-over final was turned into a Twenty20 game by the awful mid-summer weather, but it was one that really should have brought England that elusive piece of ICC silverware.

Instead, from a position where England needed just 20 runs from their last 16 balls with Eoin Morgan and Ravi Bopara going great guns, they somehow handed India this ‘mini World Cup’ to go with the real thing.

The key man in a drama that will haunt England was the erratic Ishant Sharma who seemed to have lost the trophy for his country during the 18th over of the nominal ‘home’ side’s reply to India’s below par 129 for seven.

When Morgan smashed Ishant for a huge six at the start of that pivotal over and then saw the bowler follow it with successive wides, India appeared to be in meltdown and England cruising to victory.

Yet Morgan limply gifted Ravi Ashwin a catch at mid-wicket and then Bopara, who had hit two sixes of his own to follow his three wickets, found the same fielder off the next ball. 

Ishant gave Bopara, who questioned the height of his fateful delivery, an ugly and unnecessary send-off — and the game was all but up.