Indian skipper Rahul Dravid praised Robin Uthappa for helping the team to win the crucial sixth one-day at the Oval and level the series.

"I have never seen him batting at seven. He has the power and a good cricketing brain. He has been with the team for the last one year and half and he has been developing his cricket all the time and he has been working really hard in the nets.

The way he bats in the nets is something like begging to get selected. Credit to him because he might not have batted at number seven in his life, but here he managed to control the chase. It was fantastic," Dravid said.

Such wins, Dravid said, would boost the morale of the team. "We had the goal of winning the one-day series. Now, we are in a position to think of that. It is not always we chase 300-plus total and win, so such wins are encouraging for the entire team," he said.

He also stressed the importance of the opening-wicket alliance between Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly.

"While chasing a total near 320, we need to get off to a good start. Sachin and Sourav made 150, and that made a big difference on a slow wicket, especially because the run making can be difficult as the match goes on. In that respect, they played well and set us a good platform to chase a big total," he said.

Dravid also termed reports that suggested a possible retirement of Tendulkar from one-dayers. "They are totally false reports. He does not care too much for critics. But he knows what exactly he has to do. If you play international cricket, you might come for judgment every time.

“But I have never seen him upset over anything. He has been a great example for all of us. Today, he was getting a bit dehydrated and having cramps. He lost a bit of fluid and he should be ok," he said.

On the cameo of Dimitri Mascarenhas, Dravid said, "I have never seen somebody hitting quite a bit like that. He connected five of them. It looked like a bad decision to give the last over to Yuvi. Our fast bowlers were going for 14-15 runs an over. I thought Yuvi bowled a good 48th for us. I just took a gamble with him. Credit for Dimi that he cleared everything and I gave up after the third one," he said.