There is life in Varsity cricket yet. Future English captains may not lead the students through the Long Room; the crowds may no longer come in thousands; but, as Cambridge chased 271 to defeat an experienced Oxford side – and to record only a third win at Lord’s since 2000 – the health of the ancient fixture was made clear.

Parity was maintained throughout most of the first two hours. Cambridge captain Akbar Ansari had asked Oxford to bat first, and while openers Daniel King and Sam Agarwal fell over straight balls and Dark Blue captain Raj Sharma chipped to cover, the elder Sharma – Avi – and Cambridge’s bête noire, Neil Kruger, took the score to 132 without further alarm.

Still, when Sharma skewed Dan Goodwin to point and when Kruger was caught smartly at the wicket, restricting Oxford to a total of fewer than 230 was eminently possible. Such was not to be: the returning Cambridge seamers offered width and kind lengths, and some seventy runs haemorrhaged from the batting power play, taken by Australian duo Nick Meadows and Daniel Pascoe.

Meadows was finally caught for a summarily brutal 66 from 49 balls as Oxford finished on 270, a total which had not been chased successfully since the inauguration of the C.B. Fry Trophy.

Choice among the Cambridge bowlers had been Goodwin (2 for 43) and Marc Rosenberg (2 for 28): only the profligacy of their team-mates had loosened a leash they had held tightly; only an electric fielding triumvirate of Ansari, Rosenberg, and Richard Hesketh prevented disintegration.

Perhaps becalmed by an extraordinary lunch, the Cambridge batsmen began their reply inauspiciously.

Richard Timms fell lbw to Lewis Dingle; Hesketh gloved a brute from John Lodwick, while Anand Ashok – struggling to replicate the form which delivered him the Walter Lawrence Trophy in 2009 – scraped to 34 in some twenty overs before charging and missing.

From here, though, captain Ansari and  Rosenberg led a compelling fight-back. The spinners Agarwal and Pascoe were manoeuvred deftly, and – where allowed – the forty-yard boundary to the Warner Stand was targeted with impunity. At 196 for 3, with both guns firing, Cambridge looked set to record a comfortable victory.

207 for 5, however, was less promising: Rosenberg had finally been caught at long-on and Ansari lost – perhaps fatally – to a mix-up with new batsman Frankie Brown. Redemption found Brown, however, by way of a thrilling, unbeaten partnership of 64 with Kennedy in which flamboyant upper-cuts, scything square drives, and smart running wrested back momentum allowing Cambridge to secure a famous victory with just thirteen balls to spare.

Oxford will rue the reprieves they gave to Rosenberg and the generosity of their bowlers – twenty-four wides is too many under any circumstances – but the maturity of Brown and Kennedy would have finished tougher chases than this. Cambridge will be delighted to salvage some success against the Old Enemy after the humiliation of the 4 day fixture in Oxford, and the similarly poor loss in the T20 fixture.  This result cannot mask the disappointing nature of these defeats, but victory at the Home of Cricket was a tremendous result for the underdog Cambridge team.

An influx of talented new players this season means that a similar result may be on the cards next year. There is life in Varsity cricket yet.