Fielding let India down: Dravid

“We know at 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,” the skipper said. Dravid, however, did not blame his bowlers for failing to wrap up the issue even after having England tottering at 114 for seven.

“I thought we bowled well. It was just that one wicket at that stage that we didn’t get,” Dravid said. The hosts were down at 114 for 7 before Ravi Bopara and Stuart Broad stitched together an unbroken 99-run stand for the eighth wicket to lead them to victory.

“I knew that if they batted 50 overs they would probably get there,” the skipper said. “We tried to keep getting wickets, we tried to change it around, but to be fair they didn’t give us a chance.”

Asked whether he thought the match was in India’s bag when England were 114/7, Dravid 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; they are not lower order sloggers. The other big advantage they had was that the run-rate was low.

“It’s very disappointing but you have to give credit to the two boys, they played beautifully. We needed a wicket but credit to them, they played well.” About his “chat” with umpire Ian Gould towards the end of the match, he said: “We have communication between the umpires and captain all the time and there was nothing more to it than that.”