Kevin Pietersen made a timely return from injury to secure England's progress into the next stage of the World Twenty20 tournament following an emphatic 48-run win over Pakistan.
The former England captain missed Friday's humiliating defeat by Holland with a recurrence of the Achilles problems which have plagued him since the winter's tour of the Caribbean.
But after passing a strenuous fitness test before the must-win encounter at The Oval, Pietersen hit a match-winning 58 off 38 balls as England bounced back from its opening match embarrassment to secure victory.
Sunday's triumph, which was achieved before a 23,000 capacity crowd, guarantees England's progress to the Super Eight stage of the tournament on run-rate regardless of the result between Pakistan and Holland at Lord's on Tuesday.
It was a startling turnaround from the nervous performance it delivered against the Dutch to one with more intent and purpose with England setting a competitive target of 5-185 before restricting Pakistan to 7-137.
England's triumph also served to underline just how it depends on Pietersen's firepower if it is to progress further in the event - and the consequences if he suffers another recurrence of his Achilles problems.
Knowing it faced certain elimination if it was beaten, England suffered a shaky start with in-form opener Ravi Bopara brilliantly caught at backward point off the seventh ball of the innings.
It brought Pietersen to the crease earlier than he would have hoped, but in doing so it gave him an opportunity to shape the innings and lay the foundations for the impressive total.
Pietersen was content at first to allow opener Luke Wright to be the aggressor, which he did impressively during his 34 off 16 balls which included England's first six of the tournament pulled over mid-wicket off 17-year-old left-arm seamer Mohammad Aamir.
Wright became one of two victims for seamer Umar Gul, the leading wicket-taker in Twenty20 international history, when his off-stump was removed with a perfectly-executed yorker.
But his demise merely served to insight Pietersen into one of his most influential innings in this format, dominating a 66-run stand with Owais Shah off only 51 balls and looking nothing like a player seemingly doubtful for the match until minutes before the toss.
England benefited from a slapstick fielding display from Pakistan, which included missing Pietersen on 30 when off-spinner Saeed Ajmal missed a difficult return catch as one of four dropped catches - and a series of fielding errors.
The only time Pakistan, playing at The Oval for the first time since its controversial Test against England in 2006, asserted any control over England's run spree was a four-over spell when Ajmal combined with Shahid Afridi and restricted the host nation to only 24 runs.
Their stand was finally broken once Gul returned to the attack and took out Shah's leg-stump and just as Pietersen looked all set to launch a fierce onslaught in the final overs, he became one of two victims to fall in an over from Ajmal.
Captain Paul Collingwood was caught in the deep attempting to hit down the ground and four balls later, Pietersen finally mis-timed a shot and was caught close to the wicket having hit five fours and three sixes in his display.
It left England without any power-hitters for the final overs, but by then it had already secured a competitive target for Pakistan to chase on a surface favouring spin bowling.
England had responded to what it had seen in the earlier match between Scotland and South Africa by bringing in off-spinner Graeme Swann to partner leg-spinner Adil Rashid and both played their part in preventing Pakistan from keeping up with the required run rate.
Having claimed wickets early during Pakistan's reply, with Stuart Broad making amends for his final-over horror show against Holland to dismiss Salman Butt and the dangerous Kamran Akmal, England ensured Pakistan was always struggling to match its strokeplay.
The key wicket was secured by man-of-the-match Wright, who had hard-hitting Shoaib Malik caught behind as he attempted to force the rate in the 13th over leaving captain Younis Khan with the responsibility of attempting to overhaul England's total with Pakistan's middle and lower order.
Younis batted superbly to score an unbeaten 46 off 31 balls but the performance of England's spinners swung the match firmly in its direction with Rashid conceding only 24 runs in his four overs while Swann grabbed 1-27 from his spell.
But in the end it was Pietersen's display of brilliance which secured England's progress and it can now look forward to the possibility of facing South Africa, India and Australia - assuming they all qualify - in the next stage.