India may have made heavy weather of the modest target against England in their opening Champions Trophy match in Jaipur on Sunday, but captain Rahul Dravid was confident that the team would recover from the batting slump in the coming days.
Chasing England's score of 125, India reached the target in the 30th over for the loss of six wickets.
"There is a lot of quality and class in that line-up," Dravid told reporters after the match.
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"Some of us are having a tough time at the moment, but I don't see it as a problem. Worrying about that is not going to help us score runs. 126 for six looks worse that 126 for four, which it should've ideally been, but it has been a good start to the series."
Dravid also backed Virender Sehwag and Irfan Pathan, who have been under fire of late for inconsistent performances. He said that both the players are match-winners with proven performance and were therefore a chance in the match.
Pathan did not disappoint the team management's faith in him; he grabbed two wickets for 23 runs in eight overs, and in the company of Munaf Patel gave India a fiery start at the Sawai Mansingh stadium.
"I mulled over the decision of including Irfan and went with a player who I believed could make a big difference in this match. Irfan is a player for a big occasion and I am glad he did well today.
"We sent him at number three (during batting) because some times it helps to get a flying start when chasing small totals. It is easier to hit the ball when it is harder and as we saw later, the softer the ball got, it started keeping low and the spinners came into action."
England skipper Andrew Flintoff also praised India's fast bowlers and said he was happy with the way his team had competed even while defending the low score.
"We are not disillusioned by any stretch of imagination. It was only the first game of the tournament and we are still very much into it," he said. "The games are spread out; we play the next game on the weekend so there is plenty of time to reflect on this one."
Flintoff said that the team could not recover after a shaky start and even 30-40 runs more could have made the difference in the game.
"Irfan and Patel bowled good spells in the beginning. They exploited the conditions well; Irfan got the ball to swing. I was happy with the way (Paul) Collingwood and (Jamie) Dalrymple fought well and I think we competed well in the field also."
Though both the captains said the track was not as spiteful as the scores suggest, it was a tricky wicket to put up a healthy total.
"One of the reasons we did choose to field first was because of the uncertain nature of the wicket. Also, since we were going to play two spinners the dew factor in day-night matches can take away the advantage of playing specialist frontline bowlers. I wanted the ball to be absolutely dry when Harbhajan (Singh) and (Ramesh) Powar came onto bowl. And they did show what a big difference it makes by controlling the innings in the middle overs."
Powar and Harbhajan gave England a tough time on the slow wicket, returning figures of three for 24 and one for 27 respectively.
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