"It was 10 days of really good cricket," Dhoni said. "Even the first test was interesting. Even here, when our top order wickets fell, it seemed it will go for an exciting end."

Gambhir was named man-of-the-match while left-arm paceman Zaheer Khan, who bowled superbly to claim eight wickets in the batsmen-dominated series, emerged the player of the series.

The series win helped India regain the number two spot in the International Cricket Council (ICC) test rankings. However, Dhoni said playing well was more important.

"We are not considering that fact, we need to really focus on playing good cricket," he said. "The execution of our plans have been brilliant so far."

KP hails team's grit

England skipper Kevin Pietersen praised his team's grit and individual efforts despite their test series defeat in India.

"It is not bad as some defeats, we can take a lot of positives from the series," Pietersen told reporters. "I'm proud to be captain of a bunch of boys we have brought out here," he said. "All the guys have behaved as great ambassadors of the game."

England had less than ideal preparation after resuming the aborted tour of India despite safety fears following last month's militant attacks in Mumbai.

"Indian people have been magnificent, we knew they were going to be because we came back and started test match cricket," said Pietersen. "There is nothing better than performing against knowledgeable crowds with love for the game."

Poor Preparation

The visitors lost the preceding one-day series 5-0, after the last two games were called off following the attacks.

... contd.