England's cricket stars celebrate alongside fans at The Oval after winning the World Cup in 'greatest game ever'

England’s World Cup-winning cricketers celebrated into the early hours today after claiming the most dramatic victory in the history of the sport with the last ball of a nerve-shredding final against New Zealand.

Partying began at Lord’s immediately after wicket keeper Jos Buttler whipped off the bails to run out New Zealand’s Martin Guptill at the climax of a gripping super over tie-breaker needed to separate the closely matched teams.

It was England’s first victory in the tournament and adds to the rugby and football titles won in 2003 and 1966 for a unique treble.

As the scale of the achievement set in, players including batting hero Ben Stokes and captain Eoin Morgan showered each other with magnums of Veuve Clicquot champagne.

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England stars shared renditions of We Are The Champions and their own version of Football’s Coming Home on social media before being ferried to the £500-a-night Landmark Hotel in Marylebone to continue the festivities.

The entourage of about 150 players and staff packed the bar and restaurant, where they feasted on pepperoni pizzas washed down with more champagne.

They were “very well behaved and polite”, according to hotel workers, as they swigged Tattinger champagne at more than £100 a bottle, red wine including a £47 Malbec and £7 bottles of beer.

One worker said: “After a few drinks they ordered even more food, including tuna sandwiches and club sandwiches through room service. They were seriously hungry.”

Some of the players carried on the party with their medals draped around their necks until nearly 4am.

Another member of the night team at the hotel said: “This party was obviously arranged at the last minute because we didn’t know they were going to win but it went off very well.”

A few hours later the trophy was shown off at breakfast as the bleary-eyed team emerged from their rooms. Some appeared jaded but batsman Jason Roy looked fresh and was laughing and joking with staff and fellow players as he drank champagne and orange juice and tucked into a cooked breakfast with his family.

Bowler Liam Plunkett was given handshakes and pats in the back by hotel workers.

Thousands of fans arrived early today at The Oval cricket ground in south London to join the heroes at a special celebration, where they mingled with the crowd, signing memorabilia and posing for pictures.

Buttler said: “I can’t believe what has happened but it’s nice to wake up and know it did. I don’t think anything will faze me again. I don’t think I’ll ever care about anything ever again.

“I don’t really care what happens now in my career. We were laughing about the fact that four years of work came down to one ball.”

Plunkett said: “What a day. It has changed the history of English cricket. Everyone got to watch that. I hope everyone gets involved and loves it like when we won the Ashes in 2005.”

A combined peak audience of 8.3 million watched England’s dramatic win on Sky and Channel 4.

BBCNews Online said there were about 40 million page views of #CWC19Final live last night with 3.9 million unique browsers on the @BBCSport live page alone making it most hit live story on the BBC ever.

A reception will be held at Downing Street tonight for the team.