Chester-le-Street, Sept 3: Incessant rain during the first match of the England v India ODI series robbed the visitors of a chance to register their first win of the tour at the Riverside Ground here. Put in to bat, the visitors set England a target of 275 runs with significant contributions from Parthiv Patel, Virat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane. Although the batting line-up clicked despite the absence of key players like Sachin Tendulkar, Gautam Gambhir and Virender Sehwag, there were a few negatives for the team like the injury to Rohit Sharma and Rahul Dravid’s controversial dismissal by the DRS.

Former India cricketer and current commentator Ravi Shastri spoke to www.bcci.tv about the match and India’s performance.

On the repeated failure of the DRS as highlighted by Rahul Dravid’s dismissal in this match

I stick to my stand, what I have said all along, that it’s not hundred percent correct and every team has the right to argue the case if they don’t want it; so be it.

On Parthiv Patel’s innings

He played very well. He is a gutsy little player; he paced his innings beautifully. He was watchful early on and he played to his strengths. He made the bowlers bowl short at him and got plenty of runs with that shot – the pull.

On the replacement for the injured Rohit Sharma

I think any of the boys who did well on that India tour to Australia, the Emerging team, if someone’s been in good nick there the selectors should pick [a replacement] out of that because they are in touch they have played on some hard tracks and that will help.

On MS Dhoni’s batting position

I have always believed he should come up the order. At [No.] 5 at most times and in India even at [No.] 4.

On India being robbed of a chance to win their first match of the tour because of rain

Yes, they put up a very good score. Once again it just goes show [that if you] get off to a good start [and] don’t lose wickets early then you can put this England attack under serious pressure. So it’s something they’ve got to keep repeating. If they do that, if they put scores of 270 – 280 on the board, they can always put pressure on England.