England finally triumphed after West Indies coach John Dyson called his side in for bad light when they were still behind on the Duckworth-Lewis method used for calculating interrupted matches. [break]
West Indies had been ahead before what proved to be the final ball of the match, but Denesh Ramdin was then given lbw to Stuart Broad, with West Indies still needing 27 from 22 balls, to put England ahead once again.
New batsman Nikita Miller did not have the chance to face the next ball because Dyson misread the charts and called his players in while needing just four runs off the remaining four balls in the over to secure victory.
Local hero Shivnarine Chanderpaul had earlier put West Indies on course for victory after hitting 26 off one Steve Harmison over.
Chasing England´s competitive total of 270 for seven, Chanderpaul transformed West Indies´ reply by hammering 46 off 30 balls after they had fallen behind on the rate required.
Harmison also dropped Kieron Pollard, who finished with 42 off 36 balls, on 31 in the deep but the loss of four wickets in six overs slowed West Indies´ progress until Dyson´s amazing blunder.
England had batted as well as they could have hoped, particularly without a major contribution from leading batsman Kevin Pietersen, to reach their total on a slow pitch.
England who had lost the only Twenty20 match after a poor score of 121, set out to steadily build a total, which they achieved through determined half-centuries from Collingwood and Owais Shah.
England showed great composure after losing captain Strauss, who was playing his first one-day international in two years, and Pietersen inside the first 13 overs.
Opener Ravi Bopara steadied the innings with a determined 43 and shared in a 53-run stand with Shah until falling lbw before to left-arm spinner Nikita Miller playing all around a straight delivery.
Shah and Collingwood added 98 runs, expertly keeping the scoreboard ticking over with ones and twos, despite a 45-minute delay for rain and Collingwood´s migraine problems late in the partnership.
It was a target which looked beyond West Indies for large parts of their innings with captain Chris Gayle, recovered from the hamstring strain he sustained during the final Test in Trinidad, falling lbw to Stuart Broad in the third over.
Lendl Simmons and Ramnaresh Sarwan struggled to time their shots in a similar manner to England´s top order and fell behind the required rate during a 107-run stand spanning 27 overs.
England´s stranglehold on the match seemed even more secure when Sarwan fell in the 31st over with 158 runs still required when he pushed to Strauss at mid-wicket for a determined 57 off 77 balls.
The impact of Chanderpaul once again put the outcome of the match in the balance but Dyson´s blunder handed England an unexpected victory and led to frenzied celebrations in the dressing room at their escape.
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