Following India’s 64-run defeat to England, their first in the series, skipper Sourav Ganguly has said his team will come out in full strength in the last league encounter against Sri Lanka. India were without their injured vice-captain Rahul Dravid, whose abilities at holding the innings together was sorely missed on Tuesday.

“England outplayed us in every department of the game,” Ganguly said. “We will come out in full strength in the next match against Sri Lanka. It will be a good practice before the final at Lords,” he said. India have already qualified for Saturday’s final and will play their last league match against Sri Lanka on Thursday.

Ganguly said star leg-spinner Anil Kumble, who was seen limping while batting against England, had developed a cramp but there was no major injury. “Anil got a cramp in his leg. We’ve talked to the physio and I hope he will be fit for the remaining games,” he said.

Victorious captain Nasser Hussain said he was extremely pleased with his team’s performance “and the way we played today”. “I hope we will be able to maintain this form in the final. “(Andrew) Flintoff, (Ronnie) Irani and (Michael) Vaughan batted really well and it altered the course of the match. The bowlers also stuck to the basics and bowled good line and length,” Hussain said.

“Irani really worked on his game and I hope he will repeat his performance in the final. The final is a completely different game. We will have to go back to the basics of the 50 overs game,” he said. Man-of-the-match Ronnie Irani, who scored 53 and claimed five wickets, said there was nothing big about his being promoted to the number three in the batting order.

“It does not matter much where you are batting, everyone has got responsibilities to the team and I just did my duty. I am pretty happy that after a long time I got back the rhythm in batting,” said the all-rounder who scored his first one-day half-century. He gave a lot of credit to wicketkeeper Alec Stewart who was instrumental in giving him three of his five wickets.

“I am really grateful to Alec Stewart. Alec stood up to the wicket which helped me to bowl the wicket to wicket line,” Irani said.