Victory will give Vaughan momentum to rebuild

Nothing became England so much as their performance as the long cricket winter at last came to an end. They were down, they were ready to push off home, key players were exhausted and looking it; this was just another game in another series on the winding road to the 2007 World Cup.

All one-day games of whatever hue in whatever season lead to the next World Cup. But England steadied themselves, and won with panache and discipline to level matters at 2-2 against the West Indies. It was at the fag end of a tour with the English season already warming up, but it may come to be seen as a significant moment in this team's progress.

As their captain, Michael Vaughan, astutely stressed: "We're progressing, we're nowhere near the finished article. As a one-day side we're just learning, trying to give players experience and the last match was a real good learning curve for the team. To chase the target in the manner we did when probably a year or so ago we might have just fallen short."

England won by five wickets here by being better than the home side in every department. Perhaps it helped that they were chasing, but they bowled with control, fielded with discipline and then batted dismissively. There were 16 balls to spare when Paul Collingwood and Chris Read, two men whom it is all too easy either to overlook or underrate, cantered to victory.

The bowling was especially exemplary, from Darren Gough down. On a flat pitch, the attack kept it just there or thereabouts, as they say in the coaching manuals, and had worked out their men. Gough, typically, had decided that if he was going he was not going quietly. As a result he may not now be going at all for a while.

The way in which Andrew Flintoff dragged his body to the popping crease one more time was admirable. Flintoff's figures still speak of under-achievement but he is a cricketer with a massive heart. Maybe the most heartening delivery of the match, the series, the winter even, was that from James Anderson which snaked past Chris Gayle and sent a stump cartwheeling. It was full and it swung, and the look of joy on Anderson's face suggested that this was the evidence he needed that he could still do it. Now he needs to go back to Lancashire for a few weeks and bowl and bowl.

The batting of the limited overs side is thinner than Victorian workhouse gruel. Only two players have made a century and all but one, Marcus Trescothick, are becoming accustomed to new positions in the order. It was Trescothick's brutal innings, of course, that ensured England should not lose on Wednesday. He made 82 from 57 balls; he is a remarkable one-day talent.

However, the innings that may come to be seen as the more significant was played by Andrew Strauss. He employs the traditional batting virtues to gather most of his runs and his method and temperament appear well-matched. Having accumulated 66 from 85 balls without fuss, he has easily done enough to impress all observers, including Vaughan.

Strauss is not the most obvious candidate for one-day cricket but he shows that sound technique counts whatever the form of the game. "His ambition is to get in the Test team," said Vaughan, with the air of a man who was anxious to make the ambition reality. But as the captain knows well, Strauss alone is not the answer. "It's fairly common knowledge that we're looking for a front-line batter," said Vaughan. "We could also do with finding a couple of bowlers as back up but there's been a lot of talk that we're light in batting.

"He'd probably have to bowl a few overs as well. It's just finding the right character." The queue, as he well knows, is not long, but at its head may be the clinically efficient front-footer and off-spinner, Kevin Pietersen, South African-born and bred but English qualified as of September.

Vaughan's captaincy has been cool and collected, like the man. Whether it can be inspired as well probably even he doubts. Unflappability does not necessarily breed imagination. But there is a steel under the gentle veneer. He makes his England work.

"They've given it everything," he said. "There's been a new regime brought in but every single one of them has bought into it and worked their socks off." England still need all the time they have before the next World Cup, but their final effort in Bridgetown showed that it will not be entirely wasted.