Dhoni happy to escape with a tie against England

Bangalore, Feb 27 (PTI) They could not secure win evenafter setting a mammoth 339-run target against England butIndia skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni is happy to escape with atie result, as he felt at one stage the English side werelooking clear favourites to win the match.

Both the teams scored 338 runs in the group B clash,which was only the fourth tied result in the history of WorldCup.

England skipper Strauss scored a magnificent 158-runknock and along with Ian Bell (59) almost pulled off anincredible win for his side while chasing the huge total.

"The way it was going, it seemed England would win it. Sohappy with the tied result. It (result) may reflect as a winin the (points) table," Dhoni said after the match.

"The way Strauss and Bell were going, it looked it wouldbe all over by 48th over unless Zak (Zaheer Khan) came bowledbrilliantly," Dhoni said.

Dhoni though was also disappointed that their attackcould not defend such a big total.

"I think so (it''s defendable). If 338 is not enough thenperhaps in every match you will have to score 350-360 runs,which will be very tough to do.

"It was a different wicket and pretty flat in the secondinnings but then there was more pressure on England batsman.

The lower order contributed, Swann, Bresnan and one more guyShehzad all played well," he said. More PTI AT