There is plenty of misty-eyed wistfulness that accompanies these early autumn cup finals and, for much of this match, it looked ready to be filed firmly under ‘they were better in the good old days’. It did not look one for the romantics, as Gloucestershire lost their talismanic, prolific captain Michael Klinger in the game’s first over, and the urban favourites bossed the little club from the shires.

But in the final 10 overs, it came to life. Gloucestershire fought back, slamming the anchors on, then fully sinking a Surrey run chase that Kumar Sangakkara and Rory Burns’s century stand had appeared to reduce to a lazy Saturday afternoon stroll. That the greatest resistance came from 17-year-old Sam Curran, who, having opened the bowling, wandered out to bat at No.6 and marshalled the finish as more experienced colleagues threw their wickets away, only to fall in the final over, bordered on the absurd. Maybe, just maybe, the magic remains in these finals after all.

There was a taste of the golden days, not just about the participants and the pace of the cricket, but the atmosphere too. No, it was not full to the rafters, but 17,000 vocal and partisan supporters made for a lively Lord’s.

As Gloucestershire bit back deep in the match’s second innings and the juices inhaled across a long day set in, the Edrich Stand was raucous. Every dot ball was greeted like a World Cup win.

Jade Dernbach’s bowling meant that Surrey’s chase should never really have been as difficult as they eventually made it. His return of 6-35 – all line and length at the top; all variation and chicanery at the tail – alongside some magnificent drying up from Azhar Mahmood put Surrey in total control.

Dernbach had Klinger caught behind slashing outside off-stump at the start and came back to finish the job with a hat-trick.

Gareth Batty started in extraordinary fashion, his opening two balls wildly down the legside and rightly called wides, the first so skew-whiff that Gary Wilson could not reach it and it ran away to the fence. He did grab a third wide, off the first ball of Batty’s second over, and easily stumped Hamish Marshall. Gareth Roderick looked steady but was bowled by Mahmood, playing on trying to dab to third man, and Benny Howell fell in the same fashion to one that seamed in.

A doughty, cautious innings from Geraint Jones, in his final game as a professional cricketer, and some lusty late hitting from Jack Taylor kept Gloucestershire in the game. Taylor consecutively launched Tom Curran for legside sixes and put away the bad delivery. He was bowled by Dernbach, a ball after bringing up his 50, and Craig Miles inside-edged the next delivery through to Wilson. On a hat-trick, Dernbach struck David Payne on the pad with a looping full toss, and the finger – with the ball unlikely to hit even a second set of stumps – inexplicably went up.

There was little urgency to Surrey’s chase because there appeared no need for it. Neither opener really got going, as Jason Roy miscued to cover and Steven Davies was bowled, both by James Fuller, who performed brilliantly at the start and at the death. Sangakkara and Burns looked in utter control, but when the former fell, inadvisably slogging a full toss to mid-on, Surrey, remarkably, lost their final eight wickets for 71.

There were careless dismissals – particularly Burns and Mahmood’s stumpings – but also superb bowling, notably from the spinners Taylor and Tom Smith. Sam Curran fought back beautifully, scampering singles and finding gaps, but Surrey lost their last three wickets without scoring, as James Burke was run out, and Payne dismissed both Curran and Batty going for the big shot.

Gloucestershire are a team of efficient, unglamorous, fairly anonymous professionals. They beat Yorkshire at Headingley in the semi-final thanks to Klinger, and here they triumphed without even needing a single one of his runs. “I was disappointed I didn’t contribute,” he said. “I was determined to make some big runs but it didn’t happen today, that’s how it works and I was very confident that the boys would get it done. I don’t think anyone would have cared who did well today, but I think it was fitting that Jonah [Jones] was our best batter.”

This was, in every way imaginable, a treacly triumph for the little guys.