Darren Gough took five for 44, Mark Waugh stroked 95 off a mere 90 balls and Adam Hollioake hit England's winning runs for the third time in succession; but the greater glory belonged this time to his younger brother.
No one who saw the freedom and straightness with which 19-year-old Ben Hollioake swung his bat should doubt that this was the start of something significant. Prepare for much talk about a second Ian Botham and, this time, prepare to be agreeably surprised. Relaxed and fearless, Hollioake also seems to have the intelligence not to get carried away by the adulation which is about to engulf him, but it will follow his first innings for a senior England side as surely as night follows day.
During a glorious hour in the mid-afternoon sunshine he hit 63 from 48 balls, with 11 fours and a six, against Australia's probable Test attack. Coming in at number three after Mike Kasprowicz had claimed Michael Atherton lbw in the sixth over with a ball which nipped back, he was given licence to play his natural game while the fielders were confined to the circle.
It was a case of a fearless young man chancing his arm, not to mention taking his chance, but there was no mistaking the talent he expressed and he had bowled a good line at a briskish pace too, on a very true pitch against Australian batting which redeemed itself to the extent of making a demanding 269 all out.
Four years ago the England selectors took an apparently brave step by picking the 21-year-old Mark Lathwell for the Texaco Trophy. Australia won the first two games and there was nothing to be lost by giving Lathwell his chance in the third one at Lord's. Instead they left him feeling miserable and unwanted in the dressing-room and, despite playing a couple of Tests later that summer, he has not fully recovered from the experience or fulfilled his considerable potential.
Young Hollioake found a very different atmosphere in the dressing-room yesterday and the England selectors, coach and captain had their reward for having the common sense to change their proclaimed intention not to give every member of their 15-man squad a game. All but Chris Silverwood, who is not quick enough to bowl the length he does, will have benefited to an extent from the atmosphere and experience of the last few days; even Nick Knight, who was left out yesterday after two batting disappointments but came on as substitute and held a stinging slip catch.
The first three Australian wickets, indeed, were effectively caught at second slip, though Graham Thorpe was all by himself at first when he dived right to hold Steve Waugh's outside edge and give the excellent Gough the second of his five wickets from the pavilion end - three of them in a six-over first spell which earned him three for 26. Since Mark Waugh was at his serene best, this was a fine piece of bowling, emphasised when Mark Ealham, who again bowled accurately and cleverly, was persuaded for fours square of the wicket on either side in his first over.
Waugh had opened not with Mark Taylor but with Matthew Elliott, but only for the six balls it took Gough to find Elliott's edge. Such was Waugh's quality and Michael Bevan's potential for batting of equal command, the hidden turning point of the game may well have been Knight's two-handed catch off Bevan's fiercely sliced drive in the 11th over.
Australia already had 63 by then and the compact Justin Langer, cutting well, helped Waugh advance that to 142 by the 26th over when Langer was run out as he pressed for a second run, by Silverwood's perfect throw to the top of the stumps from third man.
Despite another good innings by Adam Gilchrist, who may well be playing in the Test side before the tour is over, and a less good spell by Robert Croft, who was hit off the back foot too often, Australia's score was formidable rather than unassailable.
After Hollioake's thrilling innings - the Long Room has not applauded so deafeningly since Dickie Bird's final Test - Alec Stewart pressed on with an admirably-paced innings. It is seldom that he is eclipsed like this but he let the boy take the wheel before steering the ship most of the way to harbour.
If hitting Mark Waugh to deep midwicket at 193 for two in the 34th over recalled a less mature Stewart, it did not matter because John Crawley was already batting very well and Graham Thorpe soon asserted himself even more confidently against bowlers offering too many bad balls and fielding which wilted badly.
Crawley and Thorpe, like Ben Hollioake from a half-chance before them, were dropped and both mis-fields and overthrows abounded. The Australians have hard work ahead of them, and too little time for comfort before the first Test on Thursday week. It is as well to remember that they are top of the Test rankings, England only sixth. Indeed it was still possible to back England at 5-1 for the Ashes last night; but perhaps it is time for the bookies, like the Australians, to be beaten.