Dismissing India for 204 was a fine effort, especially as a slow turner of a pitch looked right up the visitors' street.
All England had to do thereafter, surely, was make a good start against Ganguly's often wayward new-ball attack before grinding out a win when his spinners entered the fray.
Instead, India all but won the match inside 16 overs, with leftarm pacemen Irfan Pathan and Ashish Nehra leaving the home side in tatters at 48 for five.
The pair bowled beautifully. But, then again, they are entitled to as internationals and it may only need Chaminda Vaas and Nuwan Zoysa to do something similar for Sri Lanka next week for England to be out of the Champions Trophy at the group stage.
"We are delighted to have beaten a very good India side in this series. If you look back at the three games we've probably just had 15 bad overs - and that was when they hit us with the new ball at Lord's," Vaughan said.
Few teams can afford five of the top six to fall for single figures, as happened yesterday with Marcus Trescothick, Vikram Solanki, Andrew Strauss, McGrath and Paul Collingwood.
But if England had to suffer a startling collapse then yesterday was the time to do it, with a trophy already secured.
The real silver lining, though, came courtesy of Vaughan, who ended a trot of seven one-day failures by making 74 and, in partnership with Ashley Giles, almost turned around the match.
England's skipper was pleased to make some runs, happy with the fightback, delighted by the team's performance over three matches and hopeful, no doubt, of finishing the season with a Flintoff-inspired flourish.
