England at last use brains to conquer world

I'm sure we are all delighted to see England break their major-tournament duck, but even more important was the manner in which they got there.

This was a team in which everybody carried off their role to perfection. So often in this country, we like to reduce everything to one person an Alex Ferguson, say, or a Jonny Wilkinson. This time the credit has to be shared around. It wasn't just the players who got it right, but the coaches and the selection panel, who managed to fit round pegs into round holes for once. Up until this tournament, I had lost track of the number of opening combinations who had been sent out with instructions to bat like Adam Gilchrist.

If you look at Gilchrist, he batted the same way in Test cricket as in Twenty20. So it was a relief to see England settle on Michael Lumb and Craig Kieswetter, two players who looked comfortable waltzing down the pitch against the new ball. The top three should do most of the work in 20-over cricket, and England were fortunate that Kevin Pietersen was back to his swaggering best.

Confident mindset

Here he looked more like his old self, cocky and aggressive. The sight of him taking on the best strike bowlers from around the world gave everybody a lift.

In the field, England had a well-balanced bowling attack, with three seamers who didn't send down many "drive" balls. Graeme Swann was the best spinner in the competition. And then there was the catching and athleticism on show. As captain, Paul Collingwood did an excellent job. Here is a guy who resigned the one-day captaincy in 2008 because he found it was affecting his form and leaving him mentally tired. On his second try, he has come back more experienced and better able to preserve his own psychological space from the pressures of the job.

The catch he took to send back Michael Clarke in the final was inspirational. England's was a real horses-for-courses selection: only four players could consider themselves automatic choices for the Test side. But the way they performed will make the next 50-over squad very interesting.

What will happen to the likes of Andrew Strauss, Alastair Cook, Ian Bell and Matt Prior? They all featured in the one-day series against South Africa last November, but now they might not be feeling too sure of their ground. Whatever England do with that team, they will want to carry over some of the confident mindset they showed in the West Indies.

In this tournament England showed more brainpower than any of their opponents — no mean feat from a team who have often been accused of playing thoughtless cricket. On this evidence, there is no reason why they shouldn't go on and become a force in the world of Twenty20. And a few more trophies would be nice.