England thrashed Australia to win their first ICC limited-overs tournament

By then, Paul Collingwood's England team were marmalising their opponents

Player of the tournament Kevin Pietersen helped crushed semi-finalists Sri Lanka

However unlike 2019, this was a success four weeks - not years - in the making

A decade before an implausible bat deflection, a stumble on the boundary rope and quirky competition rules made it seem like the England team's ascent to glory last July was written in the stars, their only predecessors as world champions felt fate was with them too.

As Stuart Broad recalls of the 2010 World Twenty20 final against Australia: 'I was standing behind Paul Collingwood in the queue to walk out for the anthems. Each of us was given a mascot and when his little girl arrived, he asked how she was and what she was called. 'My name's Lucky,' she told him.

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'He turned to the rest of us and said: 'It's our day, boys.' We were already supremely confident.'

Next month marks the 10-year anniversary of England's World T20 victory in the West Indies

The win from Paul Collingwood's men was England's first limited-overs tournament success

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Next month is the 10th anniversary of England's first global title which they won with a comprehensive victory over the Australians at Kensington Oval, Barbados.

By then, Collingwood's team weren't just defeating opponents, they were marmalising them.

Australia were seen off with 18 balls of a chase unused. The semi-final pursuit against Sri Lanka, powered by man of the tournament Kevin Pietersen, did not go beyond the 16th over.

However, unlike 2019, this was not a success four years in the making. Four weeks, more like.

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Regardless of the timescale, though, half a dozen of the players involved tell Sportsmail they never felt better equipped, better prepared or enjoyed themselves as much in their international careers.

England defeated Australia with 18 balls to spare in the final at the Kensington Oval

For his part in defining their team culture, Collingwood is often showered with praise. But he deflects some towards the man who had persuaded him to retake the captaincy on a beach in St Lucia 12 months previously.

'Andy Flower was instrumental in the direction the team went in,' says Collingwood.

'He probably got a little bit more pragmatic as his coaching career went on but he was very thoughtful and his view then was that whatever England teams had done in past tournaments hadn't worked, so we needed to do things differently.'

The most obvious sign that this was going to be an un-English approach came with the squad announcement less than a month earlier. Openers Jonathan Trott and Joe Denly were jettisoned. In came the uncapped Michael Lumb and Craig Kieswetter.

Just weeks previously, that dynamic duo had embarrassed the seniors by crashing them all over Abu Dhabi in a practice match defeat by England Lions.

Collingwood says: 'Andy was the first person to say they were the kinds of players and approaches we were after. It was last second, but it didn't matter.

'In the past we were worried about consequences so this was a change of mentality. We were willing to take a risk from day one.'

It almost didn't happen, though, reveals Lumb: 'I owe a lot to Graham Thorpe, actually. I wasn't going to open the batting in that game until he spoke up.

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'Andrew Gale was captain and both he and David Parsons, the coach of the Lions, said he was going to open.

'Then, Broady split my chin open. I pre-meditated and got it wrong, ran at a ball I thought was going to be length and he bounced me. I went off, got stitched up, came back and hit the winning runs.'

Indeed, after retiring hurt on 40 in a score of 86 without loss, the left-hander showed his mettle, returning to steady a wobble by finishing unbeaten on 58 from 35 balls in the five-wicket victory.

England wanted him to express himself in a similar vein on the higher stage. Lumb says: 'At one of the first practice sessions we had, Colly and Andy called me over and sat me down. They said, 'Look, we want you to know you have our full backing. You are going to play every game, so don't worry about selection, just go and play like you do at Hampshire.' It was like the weight of the world had been taken off me knowing these guys had my back.'

Player of the tournament Kevin Pietersen had also helped thrash Sri Lanka in the semi-finals

Lumb and Kieswetter hurtled England out of the blocks on their mutual debuts only for a monster score of 191 in Guyana to be diluted by the rain. When Duckworth-Lewis was applied to a shortened match, West Indies were left with scoring 30 off 22 balls with 10 wickets left.

'We felt like we had been bent over with that one,' recalls seamer Tim Bresnan.When wet weather intervened again in Guyana, it appeared an eighth defeat in 12 Twenty20 internationals was on the cards with Ireland 14 for one in the fourth over chasing 121.

As it was, a no-result allied with the Irish's heavy loss to the West Indies saw England through to the Super Eight stage on net run rate. Crucially, such limited game time had kept what would prove to be English tactical masterstrokes well concealed.

'I went to our analyst Nathan Leamon before the tournament and asked if there was anything we could aim towards during the last five overs,' Collingwood reveals. 'I wanted to know if yorkers were the ultimate at the death or whether there was another area we could find.

'The answer he came up with was to bowl wide outside off-stump at head height to the batsman.

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'His argument was that the margin for error for a yorker was absolutely minute and although it was a great ball if you got it 100 per cent right, the law of averages meant it could go for serious runs.

'With a wide long hop there was a much greater margin for error. It opened my eyes to a new strategy.'

Insight from his experience at the Indian Premier League persuaded Collingwood to incorporate a left-arm angle option in the team and so Ryan Sidebottom was selected alongside Broad and Bresnan — ahead of James Anderson.

Sidebottom picks up the story: 'I was in my early 30s and one thing that struck me was that we practised properly — how we might play in a game and in different scenarios. In the nets, we drilled those slower-ball bouncers really hard so in tough situations we used them to good effect.'

Broad mimicked Sidebottom's line of attack by operating around the wicket to right-handers and all the bowlers were encouraged to use ground dimensions and the Caribbean's crosswinds as extra forms of defence.

It became policy to make opponents hit into stiff breezes or to the longest boundaries.

Uncapped Craig Kieswetter was brought into the side for the World T20 at the top of the order

Bresnan says: 'Against Sri Lanka, I bowled three wides in four balls and Colly came over and told me he didn't mind. He just wanted me to stick to my plan. To keep the ball on that side.'

The stifling worked — the average score conceded during five straight wins was just 140.

So did the combinations running through the team. Right and left-handers alternated throughout the batting order. In the middle overs, Graeme Swann bowled flighted off-spin at one end while Michael Yardy, his fellow spinner, produced Derek Underwood pace at the other. Only once, when Cameron White collared Yardy in the final did Collingwood have to alter his plans, introducing Luke Wright for an over.

'That was the only time that the s*** hit the fan so to speak. We were so clear on adapting to the pitches and the wind,' Broad says. Bresnan adds: 'The fact that we kept the same team was fairly crucial. Everyone knew their roles to a tee. Colly allowed us to play with fearlessness.'

Michael Lumb was Kieswetter's partner as Joe Denly and Jonathan Trott were jettisoned

With a 23-year-old Eoin Morgan as an accomplice, Bresnan highlighted the momentum that was building when England were forced into their one personnel change — by Pietersen's dash home to witness the birth of his son Dylan — overseeing the last rites of a three-wicket win over New Zealand.

By then, confidence was sky high. For some, it had never been low. Says Swann: 'When we were sitting on the plane on the way there, I looked round and thought, 'We're going to win this, I wouldn't want to play against us'. I couldn't see who had got it quite as well as we had.

'We started picking people who could play Twenty20. We had Michael Lumb, Craig Kieswetter and Kevin Pietersen — the most destructive top three in the world.

'And the seamers had plans no one had seen on the international scene before. We were ahead of the curve.'

Trust on the field was replicated off it. 'They didn't keep us caged like animals, so we went out and enjoyed ourselves,' Bresnan remembers. After the Sri Lanka semi win, an England team victory song still in use today was given its first airing. Broad compares it to 'an old-school tour' and Swann calls it 'three weeks of heady bliss'.

Collingwood was also persuaded to include a left-arm seam option in Ryan Sidebottom

It was England's fifth appearance in a global final. The previous four ended in misery.

This one felt different, though, even before Collingwood struck Lucky. 'It almost felt like we couldn't be stopped,' he says.

He would hit the winning runs in what was otherwise a fallow tournament from a personal perspective. But it was Pietersen and Kieswetter who dominated, playing as if the outcome had been pre-ordained and sharing a stand of 111 in 11.2 overs.

'It's hugely important to have England teams, not just in cricket, to win global tournaments,' says Sidebottom. 'It drives revenue, drives interest, betters the game. Look at how many kids now talk about Ben Stokes, that run out, Jofra Archer...'

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Indeed. Here's hoping fortune favours England for a third time in the T20 World Cup finals in Australia later this year.

And Collingwood believes Andy Flower was instrumental in the direction the team went in