Indian captain Sourav Ganguly admitted that they were thoroughly outplayed by Pakistan in the third one-day international in Jamshedpur and predicted a "very close contest" in the last three matches of the series.
"They outplayed us from the very first ball of the match. And while chasing we lost too many wickets and could never comeback," Ganguly said on Saturday.
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Asserting that 280-290 was a chaseable score on this pitch, Ganguly said once Pakistan crossed the 300-run mark the pressure was on his team and since they lost too many wickets in the first 15 overs they had no chance whatsoever.
"A score of 320 is a stiff target on any surface. We did get Afridi out early but they kept on scoring boundaries at regular intervals. On this wicket 280-290 is a chaseable score but you cannot afford to lose wickets early."
The Indian captain said the last three matches in the series would be keenly contested and felt that whichever team kept its nerves would emerge victorious.
"It [the series] is going to be very close. With such good pitches, the next three games would be keenly contested and whoever holds the nerves is going to win."
Pakistan captain Inzamam-ul-Haq was elated with the performance of his players and said if they continue to work hard and play as a team, they had a chance to claim the series.
"The series is open. If we work hard and stay together we have a chance to win the series."
"We desperately needed this win and I am very happy that the boys played really well. We were missing the collective effort in the last two games but this time it was a good team effort," Inzamam said.
Inzamam was all praise for Rana Naveed-ul Hasan and Mohammad Sami and said the early wickets they claimed were very instrumental in the team's dominance.
Man-of-the match Rana, who finished with career-best figures of six for 27, said he had a single point agenda of maintaining his line and length as the wicket had some help for the bowlers.
"It was a sporting wicket for both bowlers and batsmen. I just concentrated on maintaining the line and length," he said.
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