England captain Michael Vaughan has backed his Indian counterpart Rahul Dravid's decision of not enforcing the follow-on in the drawn third cricket Test, saying in similar circumstances he would have done the same.
"If I'd have been in his position I'd have done exactly the same. 1-0 up and they want to make sure they win the series," Vaughan said.
The England captain, who lost his first Test series at home, said his team's mantra for the third Test was not to lose the match.
"We showed a lot of character to get through the draw. Yesterday morning, we set the guys a challenge 'If you can't win the game, you've to draw it'. And today (Sunday), in the circumstances, we did," he said.
"I hope people have seen that England are prepared to fight. We are going through a little bit of a transitional phase, lot of new players, and it's important we come through this. Today was a big moment to show character and fight and we've done that."
Vaughan, however, admitted it was disappointing to lose the series at home and there were lessons to learn from it.
{{/usCountry}}Vaughan, however, admitted it was disappointing to lose the series at home and there were lessons to learn from it.
{{/usCountry}}"It is disappointing to lose, there are series that you lose where you know you've played really bad cricket and there are series like this one where you think we haven't played that badly.
"We've been up against a very good Indian team. In the first game we were exceptional at Lord's, having lost the toss here on a really good pitch it was always going to be difficult. The series has been a really good learning curve for the team" he said.
England's only century-maker in the series, Kevin Pietersen said his team did not expect a flat track at The Oval.
"The wicket was very flat, good for batting, probably not something that we wanted but it was a good wicket, probably it will be one next week."
He said it required contribution from a lot of players to save the match at The Oval.
"Someone needed to bat for a long time, few of us did well. Vaughan, Strauss, Cook, Belly, Matty... Great team effort. We needed to make sure that we did not lose, we definitely needed to show that part of our game."
"I know, it's still hard work -- Sri Lanka and New Zealand, two places I haven't toured. I was really happy, 10 hundreds, satisfying. 10 is good, I want a lot more."
On the brief war of words with Anil Kumble in the third Test, Pietersen said, "He is a fierce competitor. I think I was watching the ball and got in his way."