Anya Shrubsole arrived at this World Cup short of match practice. It was only in the semi-final win against South Africa that she bowled her allotted 10 overs. Those who knew her said she was peaking. How right they were. With the performance of a lifetime Shrubsole bowled England to a miraculous World Cup win with a remarkable spell of six for 46 – the best World Cup bowling figures for England and the country’s second best in all one-day international cricket.

It is England’s fourth World Cup win – 2017 joining 1973, 1993 and 2009 on the mantelpiece. Shrubsole was a non-playing member of the 2009 squad. She is the toast of the country eight years on.

It was a final the competition deserved, with fans queueing round the block. Even MCC members, not usually so receptive to women’s cricket, were in formation outside the Grace Gates before 7am. The weather played ball as the rain, forecast for the early afternoon and expected to knock the match into a reserve day, was ignored even when it did arrive, with four overs left. It turned up for the best bit.

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For a while India were coasting in their chase of 229. Harmanpreet Kaur, who single-handedly destroyed the defending champions, Australia, with 171 from 115 balls in the semi-final, and the opening batsman Punam Raut took their side to 138 for two before Kaur was smartly caught at square-leg by Tammy Beaumont off Alex Hartley. But Raut motored on, aided by Veda Krishnamurthy, getting India to within 28 of their target with 44 balls remaining and seven wickets in hand.

Then Shrubsole took charge. Returning to the attack from the Pavilion End, with four overs to bowl and the early wicket of Smriti Mandhana in her back pocket, she dismissed Raut, lbw, for 86 (who had earlier been dropped on 73 by Heather Knight off Jenny Gunn). In the next over Sushma Verma was bowled round her legs by Hartley before Shrubsole removed Krishnamurthy and Jhulan Goswami in her following over – a period of three for three from eight of her deliveries.

Her next turn came in the field during the 48th over when Shikha Pandey found Shrubsole, who gathered and threw to Sarah Taylor to remove the bails as the No9 desperately tried to regain her ground. With 12 balls remaining India’s ask of 11, with the all-rounder Deepti Sharma looking dangerous on 14 and a batsman still to come, was far from impossible. But the wave of emotion – call it momentum – was with Shrubsole.

The penultimate over began with her removing Sharma, caught at midwicket, for her fifth of the innings. Two balls later hands were over faces when Jenny Gunn, one of the best fielders in the XI, dropped the simplest of catches at mid-off from Poonam Yadav that would have completed England’s win. Would it matter? Not on Shrubsole’s watch. She charged in next ball, yorked Rajeshwari Gayakwad and charged off to celebrate one of the most remarkable World Cup wins. Her final, match-turning spell was five for 11.

The graft was in keeping with England’s innings. They made hard work of batting first after winning the toss and relied on many hands to break beyond 200 and, eventually, reach 228 for seven from their 50 overs. The pitch, new by modern standards - it was last used for the men’s ODI between England and Ireland on 7 May – was not particularly troublesome. Nor were the boundaries, with three at 65 metres and the shortest, to the Grandstand, only 60m. None was cleared until India’s innings.

Individually England will rue a series of ruined starts, often in quick succession. That meant, collectively, batsmen had to undergo periods of consolidation which ate up balls that might have been used to test the solidity of the electronic sponsor boards just beyond the boundary sponge. What had started as a steady power play eventually yielded 43 runs, with two maidens off the opening 10 overs.

But Lauren Winfield and Tammy Beaumont were unable to motor beyond 24 or 23 respectively. Winfield, having previously dab-sweeped effectively, was bowled round her legs by the left-arm spinner Gayakwad trying to repeat the trick. Beaumont was no less culpable, swiping a full toss from the leg-spinner Yadav to Jhulan Goswami in the deep.

Yadav would go on to remove Heather Knight on review, trapped lbw for one attempting to sweep, as England lost their opening three wickets in 31 balls, for the addition of 16 runs.

It was at this point, with 63 for three on the board, that Sarah Taylor and Nat Sciver came together, pushing the field out with a handful of boundaries before knocking singles to those outside the 30-yard circle. For the record those boundaries, in a fourth-wicket stand of 83, came exclusively from the bat of Sciver, as Taylor ran every one of her 45 runs. Sciver would go on to complete her half-century from 65 balls – her third score of fifty or more this tournament.

That they were unable to launch a full assault was down to a fine spell from Goswami who, playing in what will be her final World Cup, removed Taylor and Fran Wilson in successive balls, before going on to trap Sciver lbw and finishing with figures of three for 23 from her 10 overs.

At another time those figures could have been World Cup-winning. Here they were overshadowed by Shrubsole producing one of the most remarkable spells such an occasion has seen.