Late September at The Oval
The fourth edition was staged in England in the second half of September, at the very end of the domestic season. The scheduling was widely criticised before a ball was bowled: daylight was short, the weather unreliable, and three of the twelve pool matches ran into reserve days. The tournament nevertheless produced the most surprising final the competition has had.
Twelve teams were split into four pools of three, the format used in 2002. The ten Test nations were joined by Kenya and by the United States, who had qualified by winning the 2004 ICC Six Nations Challenge on net run-rate ahead of Canada, Namibia and the Netherlands. The Americans were playing their first one-day internationals and were badly outmatched, losing to New Zealand by 210 runs and to Australia by nine wickets after being bowled out for 65.
The pools
Australia won Pool A by beating New Zealand at The Oval. West Indies took Pool B, chasing 247 against South Africa with Ramnaresh Sarwan unbeaten on 78. Pool C came down to India against Pakistan at Edgbaston, a low-scoring match that Pakistan won by three wickets with four balls left. England won Pool D, beating Zimbabwe by 152 runs and then Sri Lanka by 49 on the Duckworth-Lewis method in a match reduced by rain.
Both semi-finals were one-sided. England chased 260 against Australia at Edgbaston with three and a half overs in hand, Michael Vaughan making 86 not out. West Indies bowled Pakistan out for 131 at the Rose Bowl and won by seven wickets, Sarwan again unbeaten.
The final
England were favourites at The Oval and for most of the day they played like it. Marcus Trescothick made 104 in a total of 217, which looked modest but not on that surface and under those lights. West Indies lost Chris Gayle early and were reduced to 147 for 8 in the thirty-third over, with Steve Harmison and Andrew Flintoff bowling well and the light fading.
Courtney Browne, the wicketkeeper, and Ian Bradshaw, a left-arm seamer, then added 71 without being separated. Neither had a first-class hundred to his name. They took the total past 200 in near darkness and won with seven balls remaining, Bradshaw finishing on 34 not out and Browne on 35 not out. Bradshaw was named man of the match.
It was the West Indies' first major global trophy since the 1979 World Cup and, at the time, was read as a possible turning point for a side that had been in decline for a decade. It was not: they would not win another ICC event until the 2012 World Twenty20. For England it was a second lost final in a home tournament and a reminder that they had still never won a global one-day competition.
Trescothick finished as the leading run-scorer with 261 and Flintoff as the leading wicket-taker with 9, but the player of the tournament was Sarwan, whose two unbeaten innings had taken West Indies through the pool stage and the semi-final.