Owais Shah justified his recall into England's new-look one-day squad with a match-winning innings to level the Twenty20 international series against West Indies at The Oval.
The Middlesex batsman has long been considered an ideal candidate to become an established member of the one-day set-up with his ability to play wristy shots and manoeuvre spin during the middle of the innings.
But despite making his debut six years ago, 28-year-old Shah has been unable to establish himself and has played only 18 one-day internationals with his last appearance over a year ago.
The perseverance of new coach Peter Moores, who recalled him to the one-day squad for this series against West Indies, was repaid with Shah hitting a brilliant 55 from 35 balls to help England clinch a five wickets victory with three balls remaining.
Shah kept a cool head following the loss of captain Paul Collingwood, which left England struggling once again on 104 for five in the 14th over chasing the tourists' 169 for seven.
Just as Collingwood had taken England close to a dramatic triumph during the previous evening's 15-run defeat, this time Shah took control and dominated an unbroken 69-run partnership off only 36 balls with Dimitri Mascarenhas.
Despite the required run-rate rising to nearly 11 at one stage, Shah maintained his composure and with Mascarenhas sprinting like a hare between wickets to snatch vital singles, England were able to add 41 in only three overs to leave a comfortable target of only 15 from the last two overs.
England had again struggled to exploit the first six overs of fielding restrictions and lost three wickets.
Alastair Cook was bowled by a 90mph delivery from Daren Powell, Ravi Rampaul dismissed Matt Prior in similar style, before claiming the wicket of Jonathan Trott (two) - who mistimed an attempted pull and was caught by wicketkeeper Denesh Ramdin.
With Kevin Pietersen falling in the ninth over after giving Darren Sammy a return catch, England had slumped to 68 for four inside nine overs.
Collingwood teamed up with Shah to try to rebuild the innings, but when the run-rate began rising the newly-installed captain was stumped off-spinner Marlon Samuels having launched the previous delivery for England's only six of the innings.
But Shah took control to claim the first man-of-the-match award of his international career and give England a major boost going into the three-match NatWest one-day international series - which starts at Lord's on Sunday.
West Indies' hopes of building on yesterday's victory was undermined even before the start when they were forced to rule out key players Shivnarine Chanderpaul (right knee) and Devon Smith (thigh) through injury.
It forced them to field inexperienced replacements Lendl Symonds and Austin Richards, neither of whom were able to match the flair and improvisation shown by Chanderpaul and Smith in the previous match.
Symonds took nine balls to get off the mark as an opener and eventually fell for nine off 12 balls while Richards found it equally difficult to score at a decent rate and was given lbw to Stuart Broad having scored 10 off 15 balls.
Without significant contributions from either newcomer, West Indies were forced to rely on their two biggest hitters to propel them to a competitive target, even if it did fall well short of yesterday's impressive 208 for eight.
Captain Chris Gayle set the tone with a blistering innings of 61 off only 37 balls, including 32 of the first 33 runs on the board.
His display, which included a four off the opening delivery of the day, was lit up with eight fours while he brought up his half-century with a six off Hampshire all-rounder Mascarenhas.
Even Gayle, though, had to take a secondary role to the big-hitting of Samuels during a 44-run stand spanning 22 balls - the latter picked up where he left off the previous evening when he hit a 25-ball half-century.
But both fell in successive overs from Collingwood, Gayle attempting to drive down the ground and being caught by Broad at short third man, while Samuels was caught in the deep having hammered 42 off 20 balls.
Just as West Indies should have been accelerating towards another major total, England applied the brakes.
Having bowled too short yesterday, England found the right line and length and had an impressive variety of pace with left-arm seamer Ryan Sidebottom, hammered for 42 runs in his four overs 24 hours previously, finishing with impressive figures of two for 25.
Sidebottom's accuracy restricted West Indies to just 12 runs from their final three overs, which proved the turning point of the match and allowed Shah to seal victory in the final over.
