England's Cape of new hope

World Cup: Anderson's bowling and Collingwood's batting make it a day-night to remember

England paraded around the outfield at Newlands last night as the last act in a magnificent victory over Pakistan in the World Cup. It was not so much a lap of honour as an expression of relief and thanks to a legion of supporters who had thunderously cheered them home.

Nasser Hussain's team have taken their time in coming into this tournament in all but the physical sense but this confirmed to their many doubters that they do not intend to pack their bags early.

It could hardly have been more emphatic. England won by 112 runs and the man who led them home was their youngest player, the 20-year-old James Anderson. As Hussain put it with a Cheshire Cat grin on his face: "In a matter of months he has gone from Burnley third team to winning regular man of the match awards."

Anderson had also won the magnificent gold watch against Holland where his figures of 4 for 25 were marginally better than his 4 for 29 yesterday. But it is not hard to imagine which performance will remain etched in his memory.

He was not a lone hero. The man who rescued England's innings from the potential wreckage of 118 for 5, after Shoaib Akhtar had bowled the fastest recorded ball in history at 100.2 mph, was perhaps their least celebrated player. Paul Collingwood of Durham is a quiet man but an earnestly calm one. He just went steadily about his business in making 66 from 73 balls, always rotating the strike, invariably busy.

Credit for Anderson's wickets went in large part to the coach, Duncan Fletcher, whose taciturn methods have been intermittently criticised lately. But when Anderson struck twice in two balls, dismissing Yousuf Youhana with a peach of a yorker, it was noticeable that Hussain left the side's celebratory huddle, pointed to the drsssing room and applauded Fletcher. "We have had a series of team meetings all winter and sometimes you might wonder what they're all about. We had discussed the possibility of some of the Pakistani batsmen being vulnerable to the yorker. It shows that James listens. I was still working things out when he bowled one and got the wicket."

Anderson was asked if had ever bowled in such conditions before, that is the ball swinging about in one of the world's most wonderful arenas before a full house of 22,003. "Oh, yes," he said placid as you like. I've played under lights with dew on the grass and the ball swinging before."

Hussain said the team's triumphant run round the grass was not a lap of honour. How, he asked, could they leave the field without thanking folk who had travelled thousands of miles to watch them and virtually taken over the stadium? How indeed.

In the sea of delight was one looming worry, which was not Australia, for once. Michael Vaughan, the team's newly talismanic batmsan, did not field because of a strain to his calf and, while his absence was said to be precautionary, he had heavy strapping on later, which gave cause for concern all round. Surely his fragile body cannot impede England now.