NatWest Series, Match 8, The Oval, Tuesday, July 9, 2002

We're getting pretty good at these short matches - I think we should enter the 20-over competition next year! It's such a unique type of game, as far removed from Test cricket as you're likely to get. More of a fun game. You just have to forget about your averages and go for it - a good ball can just as easily go for six as take a wicket.

It was a great day for Ronnie Irani, and I was really pleased for him. It just summed it up that he took that catch at the end to finish it off. I've played with him for eight or nine years now, and I was very happy to captain him on what was probably the best day of his career.

We moved Ronnie up the order, as we tend to in these reduced games. Our batting order's very flexible these days, as it's so important to get the big guns like Flintoff in at the right times.

There were a few interesting shots at the end of our innings. I took the mick out of Michael Vaughan for his six, and he said there was a bit of dancing at the crease. It was an amazing shot - he just shimmied across the stumps and flicked it over square leg. Vaughan's such a class player and he's definitely part of our World Cup plans. He's got so many shots and now we're really seeing them - there's a lack of a fear of failure there.

And when Darren Gough hit the last ball for six, we knew we'd never hear the end of it. We were all quietly putting our gear on when he marched in and said, "That's what happens if you bowl short to me." A finish like that really gives you a lift before you go out to bowl.

A bit's been said about Nick Knight, but he did really well for us here. He hasn't had the big scores he'd have liked in this series, but they'll come. Stats can be so over-rated in one-day cricket: you have to give your wicket away some of the time, and today Nick set us up beautifully when the ball was seaming around.

Once we got 229 I fancied us strongly. The ball was nipping about a lot and I thought it'd take an extraordinary innings from Sehwag or Tendulkar to beat us. And once they were three or four down, I knew we were safe. That's the thing with these reduced games - once you start losing wickets there's no time to rebuild for a few overs, because the required rate rises so quickly. We'd probably have won by even more but I wanted to rest Gough and Flintoff - they were feeling their knee and groin injuries a bit. But they'll be fine for Saturday.

People talk about a psychological advantage going into the final, but this win doesn't really count for anything. It's nice to beat India, so that they know they can be beaten, over here and in this series. But form going into a one-day final counts for nothing. It really is all on the day, as I found out with Essex last month. India have so many big-match players, and we'll have to play as well as we did here to beat them.

Nasser Hussain was talking to Rob Smyth. His thoughts will appear on Wisden.com, other duties permitting, at the end of each day of England's international cricket this summer.

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