The perils of batting first on a moist pitch in autumn at Lord's had been long acknowledged, but never were the dangers so cruelly exposed than when Warwickshire were blown away in dramatic circumstances.

The scene was perfect. The ground was full and bathed in sunshine, but from the moment Surrey's Roger Knight - three times a losing finalist – inserted Warwickshire, the game was over. That it lasted into the late afternoon was thanks only to a dogged ninth-wicket stand of 62 in 24 overs between Asif Din and Gladstone Small, and then some leisurely batting by Surrey. As a contest it was finished before spectators had started their lunches.

Warwickshire overcome the early onslaught of Sylvester Clarke and Robin Jackman, but from 32 for 1 they slid to 74 for 8 in the 28th over. “Such was the rapid succession of batsmen entering and leaving the pavilion,” reported The Cricketer, “that it was suggested a revolving door on their dressing room might ease the congestion.” Warwickshire-born David Thomas, a left-arm quick bowler, started the collapse with 3 for 1 in 11 balls, and then Clarke and Jackman came back to apply the finishing touches.

Chasing such a small total on an improving pitch, Surrey never remotely looked like failing. Alan Butcher made an unbeaten 86, his only hiccup coming when he was caught in the gully off a Bob Willis no-ball, and Surrey lost just one wicket in recording the biggest win in a 60-over final.

A captain's innings from Ian Botham launched Somerset into their first 60-over final in four years after Middlesex had seemed on course for a comfortable victory in front of nearly 20,000 spectators at Lord's.

Botham arrived in the middle with Somerset in deep trouble on 43 for 4, chasing a target of 223. Norman Cowans, who had made his England debut the previous winter, had done the early damage with two wickets in successive balls in his second over. No sooner had Botham arrived than Peter Roebuck become Cowans's third victim, and at 52 for 5, it looked to be all over.

But Botham then played a superbly paced, commanding innings. There were plenty of his traditional lusty blows, but he took few risks and added 104 in 33 overs with Nigel Popplewell (46) and then 62 in 13 overs with Vic Marks (21).

Middlesex had the worst of the conditions, after being asked to bat first under an overcast sky and with early moisture in the pitch. Although they didn't lose wickets, they were never able to inject any real momentum into their innings, and Somerset's lightning over-rate – they averaged almost 20 an hour before lunch – added to the pressure.

It was a good week for Somerset at Lord's. On the previous Sunday they had beaten Middlesex in the John Player League and that was followed by a narrow win in the Championship, a result which all but ended Middlesex's title challenge.

In 1981, the NatWest final was widely held to be a once-in-a-lifetime finish. Yet just three years later, Lord's was the scene of another terrific nailbiting finale when John Emburey thumped Middlesex to a last-ball win in another seesaw encounter.

Kent had eschewed tradition by choosing to bat – but this decision was vindicated when Mark Benson and Neil Taylor gave them a perfect springboard with an opening stand of 96. Chris Cowdrey provided the late-innings acceleration with a 56-ball 58. “If the style wasn't quite his father's,” Gordon Ross observed, “the way he manipulated his shots to beat the field certainly was.” Kent made 232 for 6 in their 60 overs, about par for the time.

Middlesex started solidly, but there was a sense that the early overs were merely setting the scene for the real battle of the day – Derek Underwood v the batsmen. Underwood's reputation was built on exploiting damp wickets with his virtually medium-paced left-armers, but he was one of the hardest bowlers to score runs off on any kind of surface. In his second over he tricked Roland Butcher into playing for non-existent spin and, although he didn't take another wicket, his 12 overs only cost 25 runs - and Middlesex fell behind the clock.

Mike Gatting made a subdued 37 before Clive Radley, nurdling and scrambling singles as he had done for 21 seasons, and Paul Downton (40) again swung the balance of the match in a fifth-wicket stand of 87, before Downton holed out and Radley was superbly caught by Chris Tavare.

Middlesex were still favourites, with 13 needed off 18 balls but, as the gloom gathered, the next two overs produced only seven runs for Phil Edmonds and Emburey. It all came down to the last ball, with the scores tied and the same number of wickets had been lost. Tavare set the field to save the single, but Emburey had already decided what shot to play, walking across his stumps and thumping Paul Jarvis to the lightly defended square-leg boundary. “In the end,” wrote Peter Roebuck, “the game was won by Radley's craggy persistence and Emburey's pragmatism.”

A remarkable last-over onslaught by Derek Randall took Nottinghamshire to within a whisker of victory against Essex in front of a full house at Lord's. At the start of the final over, Notts needed 18 to win, and faced a nagging leg-stump line from Derek Pringle. Randall opted to give himself room to play his strokes and he took 16 off the first five balls. With two needed off the last delivery, Pringle speared one in and Randall could only scoop the ball to Paul Pritchard at short midwicket.

Essex had set the pace for much of the day after being put in to bat. Graham Gooch and Brian Hardie weathered the early storm and put on 210 for the first wicket - a record in any Lord's final. Hardie made 110 off 149 balls, in an outstanding display of strokeplay. Although both fell in quick succession, Nottinghamshire were made to pay for dropping Ken McEwan early on as he went on to make a brisk 30 as Essex posted a formidable total.

Tim Robinson and Chris Broad found the going just as easy when Nottinghamshire batted, cruising to 143 before Broad was run out. That slowed the run-rate considerably, and Essex took an increasing stranglehold on the game … until Randall's late heroics.

Lancashire captain Clive Lloyd romped to a ninth Lord's final to cap his remarkable career with the county when Surrey's batsmen threw away the semi-final after their bowlers had put them in a strong position at The Oval. Not even a century by Trevor Jesty could save the home side.

Lancashire lost four early wickets after being put in, before the 41-year-old Lloyd stopped the rot in a fifth-wicket stand of 101 with Steve O'Shaughnessy. They scored at almost five an over but, with the formidable Sylvester Clarke returning to mop up the tail, Lancashire's 229 looked well below par.

Surrey's innings was dominated by Jesty who made 112, while no other batsman managed 20. Wisden reported that Surrey “frittered away their wickets to a series of imprudent strokes … appearing to think the way to win was to hit the ball out of sight.” Jesty cracked 14 fours and a six and for the last part of his innings he had to bat with a runner after straining a muscle. Even so, he brought Surrey to within one hit of victory before being superbly caught by Graeme Fowler at long-on in the penultimate over.

Sadly, there was to be no fairytale Lord's finale for Lloyd. Three weeks later Sussex beat Lancashire in the final by seven wickets Lloyd made 0.

The scriptwriters had decided that Nottinghamshire must triumph to give Richard Hadlee and Clive Rice a fitting farewell. But for much of the match, it looked as if Northamptonshire would steal the match.

Early rain reduced the game to 50 overs, and further showers in the afternoon meant that the final spilled into a second day. Northants were put in under a grey sky and made a solid start despite a wet outfield which impeded scoring. Wayne Larkins (86) played a delightful innings, with some excellent running between the wickets. He boosted the scoring before Rob Bailey (39*) and David Capel (29*) further accelerated in the final seven overs.

Nottinghamshire's innings did not start until six o'clock. Winston Davis removed Tim Robinson in his second over and Chris Broad in his third. Derek Randall soon fell for 10. When Paul Johnson was dismissed in the next over, Notts were in the mire at 38 for 4. Play was scheduled to finish at 7.10pm, so Northants bowled their spinners and raced through their overs, knowing that Notts could not afford to lose another wicket before the close.

Play resumed on Monday at 1.30pm, with few expecting anything other than a Northants victory. When John Birch was bowled in the 29th over, Notts were in serious disarray at 84 for 5. Hadlee ambled to the middle with the score 84 for 5 and, with Rice, the pair adding 62 in 12 overs, all without a single boundary. When Rice was caught at mid-on for 63, the fielders' celebrations showed they thought they had made the crucial breakthrough. But Hadlee opened up, taking 15 runs off Richard Williams's last over, and being missed three times, the worst being when Allan Lamb lost the ball on the midwicket boundary through spanking it for six.

Davis was brought back into the attack, but Bruce French took him apart and, as the runs piled on, Northants grew increasingly nervous. A target of 51 off five overs came down to eight off the last from Capel, by then nursing a back strain.

French was unlucky to be run out off the first ball when his drive was deflected off Hadlee's boot back to the bowler. But Hadlee, smacked the next delivery for six and pulled the next to the Tavern boundary. He finished 70 off 61 balls, and his stand of 75 in eight overs had left Northants utterly dejected.

And so Hadlee and Rice's send-off was just as the neutrals had hoped for. The only shame was that only a few thousand turned up to watch what was expected to be a formality but turned out to be a thriller.

Appalling weather the week before the final made winning the toss even more important than usual, and when Mike Gatting called correctly and put Worcestershire in, Middlesex had a good advantage. The early overs, from Angus Fraser and Norman Cowans, were attritional, and the first eight produced just five runs for the loss of Tim Curtis.

Much was expected of the young Graeme Hick, but after one sumptuous drive off Fraser, he was bowled by one which jagged back, to the crowd's clear disappointment. When Gatting rested his opening bowlers their figures were 7-5-9-2 (Fraser) and 9-6-9-1 (Cowans). David Leatherdale used his feet well to the spinners in rebuilding the innings, but his dismissal on the stroke of lunch appeared to put Middlesex in firm control.

Phil Neale, Worcestershire's captain, played the anchor role but found little support, and Simon Hughes finally removed him in the 57th over, one of four wickets for him in 13 balls.

Graham Dilley produced a fiery opening burst to account for John Carr, Andy Needham and Wilf Slack, and when Gatting was run out ambling to the non-striker's end, Middlesex were in tatters at 25 for 4. Enter 18-year-old Mark Ramprakash.

A prodigious, if temperamental, talent, Ramprakash played a succession of scrumptious drives and flicks which oozed confidence. He wore a cap throughout, rather than a helmet: self-belief indeed.

Roland Butcher's unnecessary run-out for 24 caused a few more wobbles, but John Emburey provided unorthodox-but-effective support for Ramprakash in a sixth-wicket stand of 86 which all but ended the contest. Worcestershire had their chances, Hick dropping Emburey at slip, but as the runs piled on, their fielding grew sloppy.

Dilley returned to remove Emburey, and even though Ramprakash holed out to give him his fifth wicket, it was too late to affect the outcome.

The crowd, who had come to watch the future of English cricket in Hick, left with another talented youngster in their thoughts. “It was one of the most composed knocks I have ever seen from an 18-year-old,” said Gatting.

A thrilling finish disguised the fact that this final between Middlesex and Warwickshire was in the main a fairly tame affair, with a slow pitch restricting strokeplay. But as the Stygian gloom set in, the finale more than made up for what had gone before.

With 10 overs remaining, Warwickshire needed 66 to win with five wickets down. But Dermot Reeve was at his impish best and, when he took 11 off the 53rd over from Simon Hughes, the balance had swung away from Middlesex. They weren't helped by poor fielding. Reeve's run out, backing up too far, checked Warwickshire's progress, and with a new batsman, Neil Smith, at the crease, 20 off three overs appeared a tall order. 10 off the final over was equally daunting.

But whereas 12 months earlier, Hughes had taken 4 for 1 at the death, this time he was on the receiving end. Smith, the son of Mike, the former England captain, read Hughes's slower ball and smashed it back over his head for six; a surprised Hughes added to his own misery by then bowling a wide, and a few balls later it was all over.

The year before Middlesex had benefited from bowling first, but this time Mike Gatting chose to bat in sunny conditions. Their innings rarely got out of second gear. Reeve was particularly thrifty, his 12 overs costing 27, and it took some improvisation late on by Paul Downton and John Emburey to enable Middlesex to pass 200.

Warwickshire found it just as hard to score, and they crawled to 47 for 2 off 25 overs. Paul Smith's run-a-ball 24 finally kick-started the innings and set up an entertaining finale.

In 1989, Hampshire came within four runs of reaching their first 60-over final at Lord's, and 12 months later they went even closer, Paul-Jan Bakker being run out off the last ball going for the second run which would have tied the scores and ensured Hampshire defeated Northants by virtue of losing fewer wickets. So near and yet so far.

After opting to field, Hampshire did well to restrict a strong Northants batting side to under 300 on a fast outfield. Allan Lamb and David Capel scored 66 in 11 overs after a mid-innings lull, and Richard Williams struck some lusty blows in the dying overs.

Hampshire's reply started badly when Chris Smith fell in the fourth over, and at 55 for 3 the game was slipping from them. David Gower, playing what Wisden declared “his most disciplined innings of the summer” hammered 86, and with Malcolm Marshall, who profited from several missed catches, the pair added 141 in 26 overs. Gower fell to a good catch in the deep, and Marshall to a sharp caught and bowled. From then on in Hampshire never quite had the firepower when it was needed.

After coming so close to reaching the final in 1989 and 1990, Hampshire finally made it – and took the trophy with a two-run victory against Surrey.

Alec Stewart (61) and Graham Thorpe (93) revived Surrey after tight bowling and superb fielding restricted them early on. The pair consolidated at first and then hit the accelerator. After 30 overs they were 68 for 2, adding 114 for the second wicket. Thorpe fell trying to hit out, but David Ward's perky 43 off 48 balls boosted Surrey to a score which most reckoned was enough.

Much was expected from Robin Smith, who had been in good touch all summer against West Indies, and he did not let the capacity crowd down. He made a 91-ball 78. The opener Tony Middleton also made 78, no mean achievement as this was also his first match in the competition. Middleton had been called up at the 11th hour, after Chris Smith had decided to take up a coaching appointment in Perth. Waqar Younis, who had been ripping through sides all summer, removed David Gower and cause jitters in the Hampshire dressing room. With the conditions rapidly deteriorating, 24 were needed off three overs.

James Ayling calmed the nerves with 14 off Tony Murphy's final over, including a six over gully and a four past mid-on. But Smith was run out after the bowler gathered a rebound off the stumps and threw down the wicket at the striker's end.

The penultimate over, from Waqar, produced six runs, including five leg-byes. Martin Bicknell started the final over with only four needed, and although Adrian Aymes was run out off the second delivery, Ayling swung the fourth to the square-leg boundary and kick-start Hampshire's celebrations.

Few sides have posted scores above 300 and lost, so when Lancashire romped to 318 for 8 against Essex at Chelmsford the smart money was on the visitors. At the time, only one side – Essex, in fact - had ever scored more than 300 in the competition and lost; they had made 307.

Essex put Lancashire in and almost nothing went their way, aside from grabbing the early wicket of Michael Atherton. Graeme Fowler (66) laid the foundation which Nick Speak (60) and Mike Watkinson (40) built on to good effect.

Lancashire were handicapped by the withdrawal from the attack of Phil DeFreitas with a groin strain after only three deliveries, and that meant Atherton, with his occasional legspin, had to bowl his full complement of overs – and these cost a painful 83 runs.

Graham Gooch (49) and Jon Stephenson (75) began confidently, posting 123 in 26 overs, and Mark Waugh (25) and Paul Pritchard took over when both openers fell within two overs of each other. A 45-minute break for rain put the skids under Essex, and they lost six wickets for 49 to leave them on 228 for 8.

Tasked with chasing 91 off 10 overs, Mike Garnham the set about the bowling, adding 54 in six overs with Don Topley, but the odds were still with Lancashire when John Childs, the No. 11, joined him with 37 required off 20 balls. That target was reduced to 14 off one over, but crucially Atherton was the bowler, and a remarkable victory was rounded off when Garnham smacked the fifth ball past the bowler for four, bringing up his own 37-ball fifty in the process.

When Sussex went out to field on a warm afternoon they were 7/1 on favourites having posted a record score of 321 for 6. Almost four hours later, they trudged back, beaten off the last ball by Warwickshire. For anyone not from the south coast, it was a classic.

Sussex had done nothing wrong after being put in, racing to 87 for 1 in what is customarily a difficult first hour in September finals. By lunch, they had raced to 172 for 2 in 35 overs, with David Smith playing a well-paced anchor role and Martin Speight already out after a hectic 50. Two quick wickets after the resumption briefly slowed progress, but the arrival of Neil Lenham upped the tempo, and he added a brisk 119 with Smith. Lenham was out for a rapid 58 in the penultimate over, while Smith's excellent hundred was ended when he was run out off the final ball of the innings.

Warwickshire needed to set off in top gear. But they went into reverse, losing two early wickets in successive overs, recovering to 107 for 3 after 25 overs, but still well off the pace.

Just before tea came an incident that seemed minor at the time, but later took on much more significance. Franklyn Stephenson, fielding on the boundary, was adjudged by the third umpire to have had the ball in his hand as he reached over the rope to steady himself, and so two became a four. Later replays suggested he had been hard done by.

Smith fell for 60 soon after the restart, and Dermot Reeve had an immediate escape when a mistimed hook looped between two fielders. Reeve's stand with Asif Din, at first no more than an irritant to Sussex, began to grow more worrying as they kept up with the required rate. At the end of the 45th over, Warwickshire were 205 for 4, exactly the same score as Sussex had been at the same stage.

Din completed his hundred with a crashing drive in the 58th over before holing out in the next. Although Reeve was on strike, 15 were needed off the final over, and Graham Gooch reckoned the light was as bad as he had ever seen top cricket played in. To add to the batsmen's woes, the bowler was Stephenson.

The first fours balls produced two fours and two twos, the fifth a single. That left Roger Twose, who had not faced a ball despite being in the middle for almost a quarter of an hour, to score a single to win a tied match off the final ball.

With the field all up, Twose steered the ball through the covers for two.

Tom Moody completed a remarkable match, in which he had earlier hammered a exceptional hundred, with a magnificent one-handed catch on the boundary to deprive Surrey of the six which would have taken Surrey to the brink of success.

For almost an hour in the morning, Surrey's decision to put Worcestershire in appeared sound. The arrival of Moody changed all that. In 160 deliveries he scored an unbeaten 180, launching three sixes and 25 fours with strokeplay which ranged “from the audacious to the outrageous” according to Wisden. His ballistics even inspired the usually dour Tim Curtis to open up, and he made 136 not out off 180 balls. The pair added 309 for the third wicket, the highest partnership for any wicket in limited-overs cricket.

Surrey possessed the firepower, and Darren Bicknell laid down the foundations with 89 which Graham Thorpe and Ali Brown built on. But the gentle offspin of Graeme Hick, who had earlier missed out with the bat, prompted a remarkable collapse which appeared to have ended Surrey's chances.

Adam Hollioake re-ignited the chase with a defiant 60 off 36 balls, including four sixes, and when he was well caught off his own bowling by Hick, Joey Benjamin took up the cudgels.

The last over began with 22 needed and the last pair at the wicket, but Benjamin smacked Stuart Lampitt for two mighty sixes, and off the fifth ball it seemed to the large crowd that he had nailed a third, only for the 6' 6” Moody to reach high above his head on the long-off boundary to hold a sensational catch.

The match aggregate of 707 runs was the most in a one-day game, and Worcestershire's score of 357 was the highest against first-class opposition in a 60-over game.

Lancashire chose to bat on a good Headingley pitch, but threw away their advantage with a poor batting performance. That they almost got out of jail was down to an equally inept Yorkshire, that they didn't was only because of a calculated innings from Michael Bevan.

As befits a traditional Roses match, this one was low on runs. The game played in front of 18,500 (the first capacity crowd at Leeds for nearly 40 years) soon settled into a battle of attrition rather than one of strokeplay. Darren Gough produced a fiery opening spell with the new ball – that he was playing at all was a source of conflict, as the England management wanted him to be rest an inflamed left foot. But Lancashire's top order played a succession of loose strokes to leave them 47 for 4. Neil Fairbrother and Mike Watkinson stopped the slide with a stand of 70 in 21 overs, but the innings never really got going and Lancashire were bowled out for 169 with more than six overs to spare.

Yorkshire fared little better, with Gary Yates's offspin causing more than a few problems, and when they tried to hit the accelerator, wickets fell. But Bevan remained, and he finally found some support in the form of Ashley Metcalfe, and Yorkshire scrambled home with three balls to spare.

"It was like a one-day international with the big crowd,” said Bevan, who finished with 60 not out. “I knew I had to stay there to the end."

Benson & Hedges Cup holders Lancashire squeezed through to the semi-finals with a last-ball win over Derbyshire at Old Trafford, extending their winning run at home in cup matches to 16 over nine seasons.

That Derbyshire got so close was almost entirely thanks to Dean Jones, who removed his helmet as the light faded to try to help him see the ball better. It almost worked, as a target of 51 off the last five overs was nearly overhauled.

The final over started with Derbyshire needing ten – it would have been five had Neil Fairbrother on the long-on boundary not jumped to claw back a lofted drive from Jones which was heading for six, and restricting the batsmen to a single. Four was needed off the last ball, but Jones could only manage a single to long–off. It brought up his hundred, but he cast a lonely figure as he dejectedly trooped off, surrounded by jubilant Lancashire supporters.

Michael Atherton had laid the foundation of an imposing score by Lancashire, making 115 and staying until the 58th over, while the in-form Graham Lloyd gave the innings a kick with 61 off 59 balls.

Derbyshire were left to reflect on a remarkable last over from Kevin Dean in which both Lancashire's last pair were caught in front of the pavilion by Phil DeFreitas, only for both to be called as no-balls as they were full tosses above waist height. That over produced 13 runs, and so much confusion that it took more than an hour before definitive bowling figures were produced. In the previous over, the 59th, Kim Barnett had grabbed three wickets, including two in succession.

One of the most controversial and close-fought one-day matches for many years ended with Essex beating Glamorgan by one wicket at Chelmsford, and with two players – Essex's Mark Ilott and Glamorgan's Robert Croft – facing a Lord's investigation.

The two, who were good friends and whose wives were sitting next to each other, exchanged angry words and shoves when Ilott appealed against the light with Essex needing six runs from seven overs, but only had two wickets in hand. In fairness to Ilott, it was 8.10pm and extremely dark, but the seeds of conflict had been sewn in the previous over when Darren Thomas accidentally struck Ronnie Irani while celebrating his wicket.

Both sides had to come back the next morning, after a night of rumour and speculation, and Croft and Ilott publicly embraced at the end of the match. Although Essex lost a ninth wicket, Peter Such, the No.11, drove Steve Thomas for the winning boundary.

The match had been fairly fractious but entertaining from the off, with Glamorgan posting a sizable score thanks to a solid 109 from Steve James, the country's leading run-scorer that summer.

Essex started at a canter, their opening stand worth 150 in 24 overs, with Stuart Law hammered 90 off 73 balls to set them on course for what appeared to be a comprehensive victory. But tempers flared when Thomas struck Law, then on 34, on the hand with a beamer, some blunt words were exchanged before Matthew Maynard, Glamorgan's captain, stepped in a peacemaker.

Law holed out attempting an over ambitious six as his hundred loomed, and although Irani kept Essex on course with a brisk 51, as the light faded Thomas grabbed four quick wickets to bring Glamorgan back into the game. And then game the showdown.

The irony of the Croft-Ilott clash was that a week earlier Nasser Hussain, Essex's captain, had criticised county cricket as a "cups-of-tea and Pimms environment", too cosy to produce hardened international players. "I make a comment like that and then we have a game like this,” he shrugged. “Sod`s law, really."

Leicestershire were left to rue throwing away a gilt-edged opportunity to reach their second final of the summer, slipping to a three-run home defeat by Derbyshire.

When Phil Simmons was hammering the ball to all parts, Leicestershire were in total control. Chasing Derbyshire's 298 for 6, they were 243 for 3, with 56 needed off the last 11 overs and Simmons in sight of his hundred. But Simmons was bowled aiming an unbecoming heave at Dominic Cork, and the innings suddenly lost all momentum.

The veteran Kim Barnett slowed the run chase at one end and Kevin Dean produced an accurate final spell before Vince Clarke was entrusted with the final over against his old club. Leicestershire needed 10, and they smacked seven runs from the first five balls. Paul Nixon charged the final delivery, missed, and the run-out was a formality.

Derbyshire's innings had been built on good fifties from two youngsters, Robin Weston and Ben Spendlove, in a partnership of 120 from 26 overs. Both fell within an over, and the old guard took charge as Cork and Phil DeFreitas put on a rapid 75 in 11 overs. Derbyshire's last ten overs brought them 87 runs.

DeFreitas hit Maddy for six and four but was then bowled next ball trying for another big hit while Cork remained unbeaten to the end, his 61 coming off only 63 balls and including seven boundaries.

Holland celebrated the first NatWest match to be played on mainland Europe by beating Durham comfortably at Amstelveen. This defeat completed a bad month for English cricket, coming hot on the heels of England's wretched exit from the World Cup.

Holland won the toss and put Durham in on a slow and low pitch, where he batsmen struggled against some naggingly accurate seam bowling. Feiko Kloppenburg did most of the damage with 4 for 25 off his 10 overs.

Only Tim Boon, who needed 19 balls to get off the mark, and Martin Speight, who made 60 from as many balls, looked at all comfortable and the tail succumbed to Kloppenburg.

Kloppenburg then opened the Holland innings, making 61, predominantly off the front foot, but found scant support until Luc van Troost arrived with the score on 91 for 4. The pair took Holland to the brink of victory before Kloppenburg was run out. That setback did not slow van Troost, who then smacked Steve Harmison for three boundaries in an over as Holland romped home with three overs in hand.

“Durham said it was the slowest wicket they have ever seen,” said Holland's captain Roland Lefebvre. “But I have played county cricket and I think that's a poor excuse.”

At the start of the inaugural triangular NatWest Series it was assumed that England and West Indies would contest the final, with Zimbabwe doing little more than make up the numbers. As it turned out, Zimbabwe topped the group stage, losing only one match, while West Indies managed just one win, and that in a dead rubber.

The crucial match was the one between West Indies and Zimbabwe at Chester-le-Street. West Indies had to win to stay in the tournament, and when they batted on a perfect pitch it seemed they had recaptured their swaggering arrogance of old. Sherwin Campbell led the charge with 105, and the large crowd really came alive when Brian Lara cut loose with a 76-ball 87 as he added 176 for the second wicket with Campbell, taking the score to 259. Lara's dismissal at the end of the innings appeared academic, and the final overs were something of an anticlimax.

A target of 288 seemed beyond Zimbabwe, all the more so when they slid to 104 for 4. But Murray Goodwin, in his final summer of international cricket, and Andy Flower took the attack to the bowlers, and West Indies' fielding became ragged and the bowling lost its direction. The policy of resting the aging warhorses Curtley Ambrose and Courtney Walsh for alternate one-day series came unstuck when Walsh injured his foot and Ambrose was back in the Caribbean. Without the two of them, West Indies' cupboard appeared woefully bare.

With 90 needed of the last 109 overs, Zimbabwe still faced a daunting ask, but Goodwin brought up his hundred in 130 balls, and then Flower took over as senior partner. By the end West Indies were well beaten, and the only sadness was that Flower finished unbeaten four short of what would have been a deserved hundred.

A dramatic finish at Lord's resulted in England's second narrow defeat in three days, this time at the hands of Pakistan. Marcus Trescothick's heroic innings of 137 from only 142 balls, his third one-day hundred, carried England to within three runs of victory, but Pakistan's dramatic fightback won the day.

Trescothick and Owais Shah had appeared to put England on course for a simple victory with a fourth-wicket stand of 170 at less than a run-a-ball. Instead, in a manner which echoed their performance in the Old Trafford Test eight days earlier, Pakistan roared back with seven wickets in the last ten overs.

Nevertheless, with Trescothick at the crease, England were still just about favourites when the last over began with nine required. That had been reduced to six when, off the third ball, Trescothick was caught at deep midwicket, Shahid Afridi clutching the ball despite a colliding heavily with Shoaib Malik. With three needed off the last delivery, Andy Caddick was stumped trying to hit over the top, leaving Pakistan winners by two runs and England suffering their eighth successive defeat, their worst sequence in limited overs cricket.

Pakistan had made a brisk start after being put in to bat in overcast conditions, before Caddick struck twice in his eighth over to reduce them to 59 for 2. Their hundred came from 153 ball but the scoring rate fell considerably as the partnership between Yousuf Youhana and Younis Khan progressed, to the extent that between the 23rd and 35th overs there were no boundaries.

It was a stand that Pakistan needed, and the later overs produced an increase in runs as England's bits-and-pieces bowlers failed to match the performance of the front-line seamers. In the end, it proved to be a vital factor.

The final, between England and India, was one of the most thrillingly topsy-turvy limited-overs internationals ever played. When India slipped to 146 for 5 in pursuit of a daunting target of 326, the capacity crowd, basking in glorious sunshine, sat back to enjoy a home victory. Only Yuvraj Singh, 20, and Mohammad Kaif, 21, remained of the recognised batsmen. But Yuvraj played some punishing strokes off the back foot, Kaif was all wrists through midwicket, and the pair added 121 in less than 18 overs.

Even the departure of Yuvraj didn't check India's progress as Harbhajan Singh helped to add a quick 47 to take India to the brink of victory, only for Andrew Flintoff to stop them in their tracks with two wickets in the 48th over. But India needed just 11 runs off 12 balls, then two off six, and Zaheer Khan stole the winning runs with three balls remaining courtesy of an overthrow. England's players wandered off in a daze, the Indians celebrated as if they had won the World Cup, and well they might have. After nine consecutive defeats in one-day finals, it was tenth time lucky.

For most of the match that losing streak seemed certain to continue. England's innings of 325 for 5 contained some sublime strokeplay and one moment of drama when Nasser Hussain completed his first one-day international century. It was far from being a classic, with more than a few mistimed shots, and as he completed his 100th run, he pointedly gestured to the press box where his continuing role as No. 3 batsman had been widely criticised – he held up three fingers and gesticulated angrily to the No. 3 on the back of his shirt.

It almost overshadowed an outstanding performance by Marcus Trescothick, who added 185 for the second wicket with Hussain in just 177 balls. Trescothick motored to his third one-day hundred in 89 balls, and then Flintoff bludgeoned 40 off 32.

Faced with an asking rate of six-and-a-half an over, India came out with all guns firing. Sourav Ganguly smacked fifty in 35 deliveries, adding 106 in 15 overs for the first wicket with the dashing Virdender Sehwag. But Ganguly fell slogging at Alex Tudor, the first of five wickets to fall for 40 in the next ten overs. Enter the two youngsters.

In front of a packed Old Trafford and in a cacophony of blaring horns that was more Lahore than Lancashire, Pakistan squeaked to a thrilling two-wicket victory in the first match of the inaugural NatWest Challenge. In a game of four quarters, England's youthful team started and finished with exuberance and optimism, but gave way to naivety in the vital middle sections of the game.

Chasing 205, Pakistan were strolling on 139 for 2, needing only 66 from the last 14 overs, when a direct hit from Michael Vaughan ran out the impressive Yousuf Youhana. Three balls later, James Anderson bowled Younis Khan and then suckered Mohammad Hafeez, who had played the anchor role, with a slower ball. At 158 for 5, the game had swung in England's favour. Azhar Mahmood slapped Anderson for six to raise Pakistan's spirits, but the irrepressible Darren Gough still had two overs remaining. With the fifth ball of his second spell he dismissed Shoaib Malik, and then Anderson, in between some atrocious profligacy, trapped Rashid Latif lbw with an inswinging Yorker.

Gough struck again to remove Azhar Mahmood, and reduced Pakistan to 194 for 8, but England had gambled all in trying to take wickets, and Rikki Clarke had to bowl the final overs. It proved too much to ask.

In the field, Pakistan looked a different outfit to the side who had performed so poorly during the World Cup a few months earlier. Latif juggled his bowlers and field placings, and picked up three smart catches. Pakistan's wickets were shared between five bowlers, but it was the astonishingly rapid bowling of Mohammad Sami that really stood out.

Nevertheless, England had made a riotous start to the match. Vikram Solanki's run-a-ball 36 more than justified his recall after a three-year absence, but thereafter it was less smooth. Flintoff needed just four balls to club his first boundary, but required another 10 overs to double his tally of fours, Clarke was bowled behind his legs for a second-ball duck, and only a composed 33 from Anthony McGrath could prevent a complete meltdown. Against more experienced opposition, England might never have come close to defending a total of 204 for 9. But had they been more experienced themselves, they might not have needed to.

An unbeaten century from Chris Gayle helped West Indies book their place in the NatWest Series final, where they would eventually lose to New Zealand, but not before Andrew Flintoff and Andrew Strauss had shared an England record one-day stand of 226 to boost their total to 285 for 7. West Indies made it home with only three wickets down and five balls to spare, thanks mainly to a partnership of 187 between Gayle and Ramnaresh Sarwan.

West Indies' cool and calculated run-chase overshadowed some marvellous hitting from Flintoff and Strauss after England had limped to 38 for 2 in the first 15 overs of the contest. Though West Indies eventually reached their target quite comfortably, they did have a few scares along the way, and England were left to rue some sloppy fielding, as well as the memories of the NatWest Series final against India at Lord's in 2002, when they also lost after two players had made centuries.

England's total of 285 seemed to be a challenging one, but West Indies, led by Gayle, went about the chase with little fuss. After quietly progressing to 15 for 1 in the seventh over, Gayle and Sarwan gradually took control, though both men were dropped before they had reached 20. Sarwan was eventually extracted by James Anderson for 89, who bagged Brian Lara early to bring England back into the game at 218 for 3. However, Gayle scampered to his hundred with a risky single, before Ricardo Powell sealed the deal with a series of lusty blows.

All of which meant that a scintillating double-century stand between Flintoff and Strauss, which rescued England from a perilous 54 for 3, wasn't quite enough. Flintoff smashed 123 from 104 balls, including seven huge sixes, while Strauss scored his second consecutive international century at Lord's, his home ground. They came together in the 19th over, and slowly but surely upped the tempo to give their side a sporting chance of victory. But it wasn't to be.

“The bigger they come the harder they fall" is a cliché that has been doing the rounds since the days of a certain shepherd-boy and his slingshot, but on June 18, 2005, arguably the greatest giant-slaying act in the history of international cricket took place at Sophia Gardens in Cardiff. A wonderful century from Mohammad Ashraful was capped by the six-hitting exploits of Aftab Ahmed, as the minnows of Bangladesh felled the mighty Australians by five wickets in a final-over thriller.

Australia's problems started before the toss when Andrew Symonds was omitted on disciplinary grounds, and they were never on top of their game from the moment they lost Adam Gilchrist to the second ball of the match. Although the middle order batted well, Bangladesh made them work for every run, but Australia's fielding was notably off the boil, with a dropped catch by Jason Gillespie and a missed run out by Ricky Ponting proving crucial.

This, however, was Bangladesh's day. Ashraful was the hero, making his first one-day hundred at a run a ball and by adding 130 in 23 overs with Habibul Bashar, he put his side on course for an unthinkable result. The pair came together with Bangladesh struggling at 72 for 3, chasing 250, but they did not panic as the asking-rate climbed to seven-and-a-half an over. Ashraful's innings showed great composure and a classy line in strokeplay although he was given a crucial reprieve, on 54, when Gillespie was dazzled by the sun and dropped a hook shot at long-leg.

It was a bad day all told for Gillespie. Bangladesh started the last over needing seven to win, but Aftab blasted his first ball over midwicket for six before scampering a madcap single to cue an outpouring of emotion from a dressing-room singularly unused to such moments of glory. This result had been on the cards, however, from the moment Australia had slumped to 9 for 2 and then 57 for 3 in the 16th over.

A partnership of 108 for the fourth wicket between Damien Martyn and Michael Clarke formed the backbone of Australia's total, and the innings was rounded off with a energetic stand of 63 in 6.3 overs between Michael Hussey and Simon Katich. But it was insufficient to put Australia's tour back on track after destabilising defeats against England in the one-off Twenty20 match at the Rose Bowl, and Somerset at Taunton. And it highlighted a chink in the team's armour that would ultimately be exploited in the greatest Ashes series of all.

Sanath Jayasuriya and Upul Tharanga led Sri Lanka to a quite brilliant eight-wicket win in the final one-dayer against England at Headingley to secure the most comprehensive of whitewashes, taking the series 5-0 - with more than 12 overs to spare. Though the series had been won a week earlier, the method and destruction with which Sri Lanka's batsmen chased down a hefty target of 322 was stunning to behold.

Jayasuriya, the wise old man of Sri Lanka's side, batted with the ebullience of a man half his age to rampage to a 72-ball hundred, as he and Tharanga compiled an incredible opening stand of 286 in 32 overs, a record for the first wicket in ODIs and the third-highest of all time. The feat marked Jayasuriya's 362nd one-day international, a tally that equalled the record of Sachin Tendulkar and Inzamam-ul-Haq, and he eventually finished on 152 in 99 balls, with four sixes and 20 fours.

The match was England's 15th defeat in 19 ODIs, and it had been telegraphed from the moment Chaminda Vaas had launched the game with consecutive maidens. After three overs, England had mustered a solitary run; Jayasuriya and Tharanga managed 46 in the same time. Steve Harmison, his confidence shot to bits, bowled ten wicketless overs went for 97, a new England record for expensive analyses.

The game was as good as won for Sri Lanka as early as the 10th over, with Jayasuriya skipping down the wicket to the seamers; toying with every bowler; smashing bowlers over their heads and, well, wherever he chose. It was Jayasuriya at his best, no doubt, but was one-day batting at its most awe-inspiring as well. That he overshadowed Tharanga, who played sublimely for his 109, said rather a lot about the character of a man who refuses to be beaten, a trait also becoming of Sri Lanka.

Ironically, Sri Lanka might not have laid into England with quite such ferocity had it not been for Marcus Trescothick's own heroics with the bat. He made 121 from 118 balls to haul England to their highest total of the series, before Lasith Malinga ripped through the lower order to claim four late wickets. Sri Lanka were showcasing the form that, within six months, would carry them to the World Cup final. England, meanwhile, remained mired in mediocrity.

The best one-day matches are decided in tight finishes and, when the life of a series hangs in that balance, it makes the tension that much more real. Led by a magnificent 94 from Sachin Tendulkar and an icy-cool unbeaten 47 from Robin Uthappa, India hunted down a sizeable target of 317 with two balls and two wickets to spare.

England fought hard and, in Dimitri Mascarenhas's onslaught of five consecutive series off Yuvraj Singh, flamboyantly, but they were pipped at the post as Uthappa nervelessly manipulated consecutive fours in the final over off England's best bowler of the day, Stuart Broad.

England's impressive total had been set up by an excellent century from Owais Shah, who rescued his team from 137 for 5 in the 31st over with 107 not out from 95 balls. Luke Wright, on debut, cracked a brisk 38-ball fifty before Mascarenhas's final flourish hoisted them past 300 and then some, but India's response was ominous from the start, as Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly rushed along to a 150-run stand inside 23 overs.

Then, against the run of play, Ganguly holed out to cover for 53 to trigger a mid-innings slump. Tendulkar, struggling with cramp, fell in the nineties for the fifth time on tour, and when the middle order folded, 83 runs were still needed from 58 balls with five wickets standing. At one stage the rate popped over ten an over, but Uthappa trusted in his ability to find the gaps, and steadily guided India to their goal.

It was a grandstand finish that kept India alive in the series as they pulled the scoreline back to 3-3 with just the decider at Lord's to come, but three days later, England gained vengeance for their defeat in the earlier Test series by strolling to a seven-wicket win with 82 balls still in hand.

Kevin Pietersen's tenure as England captain was brief in the extreme, but his honeymoon period was something to behold. After inspiring England to victory in his first Test in charge, he followed that up with a 4-0 thrashing of a South Africa side whose prowess in one-day cricket had previously been taken for granted.

Nothing was quite as comprehensive as the rout that took place in the second match at Trent Bridge, however, as South Africa were subjected to the heaviest and most humiliating defeat in their 406-match ODI history. From start to finish the contest lasted a mere 37.1 overs, 23 of which were used up by the South Africans themselves, as England rolled them aside for 83, their second worst total after the 69 they made against Australia at Sydney in 1993-94.

It was a performance of utter dominance from England, and it was led by the rookie Stuart Broad, who located a waspish length on the line of off stump to delight the Nottinghamshire home crowd with his first five-wicket haul in all limited-overs cricket. The match was done and dusted before the Trent Bridge authorities had even had time to showcase their spanking new floodlights.

It was only England's third ten-wicket win in ODIs, and it was made possible by a spell of four wickets in 17 balls from Broad, which left their innings in tatters on 27 for 4. Matt Prior finished with six catches in the innings - a tally that had not been equalled by an England wicketkeeper since Alec Stewart managed that many against Zimbabwe at Old Trafford in 2000.

Prior then underlined England's new-found confidence by racing off in pursuit of South Africa's meagre total. With Ian Bell anchoring the innings alongside him, he finished unbeaten on 45 from 36 balls, as the target was hunted down inside 15 overs. With such momentum behind them, England did not look back, and had it not been for heavy rain in the final match at Cardiff, a rare whitewash would surely have been on the cards.

England's desire to avoid humiliation proved a greater incentive (but only just) than Australia's desire to complete an arduous tour with an unprecedented 7-0 whitewash, as Graeme Swann's maiden five-wicket haul proved the difference between the sides in the final match of the series at Chester-le-Street.

In a manner befitting England's scrambled mindset, they still managed to make a meal of their chase of 177 to win, slumping from 106 for 0 to 141 for 5 before Paul Collingwood dragged them kicking and screaming to a spectacularly inglorious victory. Nevertheless, the result did at least mark the bottoming-out of their one-day fortunes. The following day, the team jetted off to South Africa for the Champions Trophy, and surprised everyone by reaching the semi-finals with a new and uncluttered mindset.

Key to their revival was the form of Swann, who was the day's stand-out performer. He came into the attack in the 25th over of Australia's innings, with Ricky Ponting and Michael Clarke sitting pretty in a third-wicket stand of 79, and produced a spell of hand-grenade uncertainty, finding flight, loop and bite to unsettle a previously serene batting line-up.

His first wicket was also the most crucial, that of Ponting, whose 53 from 67 balls had enabled Australia to recover from a shaky 17 for 2, but who fell to Swann's fifth ball of the innings, as he was deceived in the flight and plopped an attempted cover-drive into the hands of Collingwood at midwicket. Clarke's subsequent run-out left the innings teetering at 110 for 4, whereupon Cameron White was bowled through the gate by a beautiful Swann offspinner.

England's victory might have looked more comfortable had Andrew Strauss hung around after easing to 47 from 74 balls. Instead he played an ill-advised reverse-sweep off Nathan Hauritz, to cue a collapse of 4 for 11 in 34 balls. But having already secured the Ashes in a momentous summer, England were just about able to sign off from the season on a positive note.