Kanpur: Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni while admitting that England put up a valiant fight, asserted that his side was a deserving winner in the third one-dayer.

''It was a tough match and it was the closest so far but we were ahead at every stage,'' Dhoni said adding ''In the morning when I went out for the toss I knew that D/L method could be applied as we know light fades away very fast at this venue after 4 pm.

''So we were prepared, I had a chit of D/L calculations. Once we knew D/L method would be applied we decided to preserve wickets as we knew we were ahead and runs could be scored from the power play (to be taken by batting side),'' he said after the match.

The host won the match by 16 runs under Duckworth/Lewis method to take a 3-0 lead in the seven-match series.

Dhoni was of the view that the track was a difficult one to bat on but Indian batsmen were up to the task by taking ones and twos and ensured that no wickets were lost once the D/L method came into picture.

Bad light fails to halt Indian juggernaut

''We were always ahead even under the D/L method.

''The pitch was slowing down and the odd ball turning. It was difficult to bat on. But we decided to preserve wickets and take the singles as D/L method was in mind,'' he said.

Dhoni cautioned his players against becoming complicent saying the series is far from over and as ''we have to win one more match.'' ''We want to win the series, have to win four matches. That is the most important thing. We want to make it 4-0 first before thinking of anything else,'' he added.

UNI

Tags: ms dhoni, india england 2008, england tour of india, odi series, nagpur, bad light, d/l method.