So tonight, when they play West Indies for a place in the last four, can the real England please stand up?

This is turning us inside out. Just when you think you’ve identified the problems and made peace with yourself and your team – it’s the system, no flair, we’re inexperienced, we’re a five-day sort of culture etc – England turn on the style to dump the reigning world champions out of the tournament.

To indulge a recently advanced cricket cliché, England “came hard” at India. Which is to say that they batted with nous, and then bowled short, short and then a bit shorter still, all the while spitting and glaring and acting hard. Even the odd wide was happily boomed over the batsman’s head because the impact of pinning these front-foot masters back in their crease outweighed the loss of a run or two.

As a tactic it was about as subtle as the crazed Tourette’s hollering exploding from Ryan Sidebottom after he’s bowled a standard delivery. Whether warding off demons or merely unsettling batters, yesterday Sidebottom was possessed, marking his return to the side with two wickets and the man of the match award.

At a few minutes to nine last night as Lord’s rocked like never before, and after bowling the last over with India needing 18 to tie and restricting them to just 15 of them, Sidebottom was mobbed by ten suddenly off-the-hook Englishman. They are still alive in this tournament.

England’s seamers rattled India’s youthful gods. England knew 153 was competitive, but that it was nothing more than a fighting chance. They were wired from the start. An unsettled Suresh Raina top-edged a hook, just two overs after the opener Rohit Sharma had attempted the same shot to lose his middle stump.

It left India 24-2: cue Yuvraj Singh.

Except there was no Yuvraj! He was still sat in the dugout chuntering. In his place at number four, England prepared their fields instead for a wispy young all-rounder called Ravi Jadeja, just 20 years of age, with three international matches to his name.

In the event, Jadeja’s laboured and at times painful knock of 25 from 35 balls ultimately lost India their title. It was cruel on the lad, especially as his left-arm non-spinning darts had earlier accounted for England’s two best players and top scorers in Kevin Pietersen and Ravi Bopara. But this was a huge game at Lord’s in front of a vocal Indian majority, and by the end of his ordeal the poor kid’s face was ashen. He will be inconsolable.

It left Yuvraj, MS Dhoni and Yusuf Pathan too much to do, despite Yuvraj flicking his first ball 101 metres and briefly threatening to win it on his own. His wicket was England’s best moment of the tournament. He was on 17 from nine balls when Graeme Swann, having just watched a respectable yorker get slapped for six, dared to flight one up and outside Yuvraj’s off stump.

The lefty went to drive, but was deceived in the flight as Swann’s off-break dipped and turned sharply. Yuvraj overbalanced a touch, and in one swift blur of brilliance James Foster showed the watching world why England had picked him, whipping off the bails with Yuvraj a split-second from his crease. Yuvraj gone, India soon to follow.

So when England had no choice, they held it together, producing their best cricket of the tournament. Now for the West Indies, and a shootout for the semi-finals. This thing is still on…