London, Sept 9: Off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin was a key contributor in the third ODI against England along with Man-of-the-Match Ravindra Jadeja. The Tamil Nadu bowler first scored a valuable 36 not out and then picked three wickets to keep India’s hopes alive in the game.

The lanky bowler reflected on the match at The Oval in a post-match media-interview. Excerpts:

On whether it was satisfying to take the game down to the wire after losing four wickets for 25 runs

You can’t really call a game that you have lost as satisfying but at the end of the day [we] did a pretty decent job. [After] losing our top four batters we came back really well in the game. With all due credit, we are no less a side than England. Just because they won the Test series they are on a high right now so it means they play with much more energy than us and that is exactly what is hurting us right now. We are just not able to get that edge and it’s just a matter of time. We are playing very good cricket; we should be through soon enough.

On grabbing the opportunity with the ball with some help from the pitch

[The ball] did grip a bit and the odd ball was skidding. I was able to get the ball to skid on and turn at will so it obviously helps. These kinds of wickets you don’t get in India. Because you have a good bit of bounce, it [comes] on to the bat; this means you are always in the game [and] the batsmen don’t have much time to adjust. So I am actually enjoying my tour in England right now.

On claiming Jonathon Trott’s wicket with the carrom ball

I don’t think he picked it and it was a [time] to [savour] because we got Craig Kieswetter then and back- to-back [Jonathan] Trott. We were back in the game, so [I’m] enjoying myself here.

On Man-of-the-Match Ravindra Jadeja

[I’m] really happy for him; he played really brilliantly with the bat and no less with the ball. He, along with me, we tried to pull back the game to an extent. But unfortunately [it was] not good enough [on] the day.

On his batting

I fancy myself [as batting] really well because I have batted in all my junior cricket and Ranji Trophy cricket a little higher for Tamil Nadu [and] got a lot of runs as well. I don’t know what others think of me, but at least I have to think positively for myself. I always fancy myself with the bat and I think I can get proper runs rather than just slog it around.

On the remaining two games of the series

[We’ll] first try to nail one and then nail [the other] back-to-back, so [we can] probably get on to the flight two-all; that’s what we are looking at right now.