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Fielding let us down: Dravid
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August 31, 2007 16:18 IST

Captain Rahul Dravid [Images] slammed his fielders for India's disappointing three wicket loss to England [Images] in the fourth one-day international but said his team has the resilience to come back from a deficit of 1-3 in the seven-match series.

"It's tough, but I think when we reach Headingley we'll be pretty keen", Dravid said after the match.

An England record eighth-wicket stand by youngsters Ravi Bopara and Stuart Broad clinched an unlikely victory over India in the fourth one-day international at Old Trafford on Thursday.

Bopara, 22, and Broad, 21, shared an unbroken alliance of 99 as England recovered from the depths of 114 for seven to reach their target of 213 with three wickets and 12 balls to spare.

"We know in the back of our minds that we could have won that game - the series could easily have been so different. We knew we had the upper hand and only needed that one wicket."

Dravid, however, was not too harsh on the bowlers who failed to deliver the knock-out punch.

"I knew that if they batted 50 overs they would probably get there," he said. "We tried to keep getting wickets, we tried to change it round but to be fair they didn't give us a chance."

Dravid said the team's fielding, which has been a concern throughout the series, was a major let down.

"Our fielding is an area that does hurt us, especially in these type of low-scoring games. We had seven guys inside the ring to stop the single and still the opposition managed to get singles. It is tough."

Asked whether he thought England were dead and buried at 114 for 7, he said, "they do bat lower down the order. I think Broad coming at No. 9 is a huge thing for them. They (Broad and Bopara) played sensibly and they are not the lower order sloggers.

"The other big advantage they had was that the run-rate was low. The run rate they needed was still only 3.5 an over so we needed to get the wickets.

"When Bopara and Broad came into bat - even if they were chasing four-and-a-half runs an over - our aim was to drag the run rate up to five. We tried everything we could, but did not get that one chance to get that wicket.

"It's very disappointing but you have to give credit to the two boys, they played beautifully."

Dravid also said the batsmen could have done better.

Sachin Tendulkar [Images] (55 from 86 balls) and Yuvraj Singh [Images] (71 from 104) hit half-centuries but the rest of the specialist batsmen did not cope well against a moving ball as India were bowled out for 212 in 49.4 overs.

"I think we were 25-30 runs light to start off with as 240, I thought, was a good score on that wicket."



  • India in the United Kingdom 2007
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