Bristol: Team India captain Rahul Dravid was all praise for Piyush Chawla, who took three wickets in India’s nine-run win over England in the second ODI here on Friday. He removed Ian Bell, Kevin Pietersen and England captain Paul Collingwood to help India level the seven-match series one-all.

“He is a young kid, but there are signs of him developing. He has played all his cricket outside India where the pitch and conditions don’t suit his kind of spin bowling,” said Dravid.

“He’s got a terrific attitude, he is aggressive and always wants the ball… It is a good sign. He is not scared, even if he gets hit.

“He had a bad game in Southampton (first ODI) and I told him the conditions had not been easy. It had been cold and there had been nothing in the wicket. But he was disappointed.”

Dravid said Chawla had improved since his debut against England in the Mohali Test in 2006. “I can see his keenness to learn. He has improved.”

Dravid, who was named the Man-of-the-Match for a brilliant unbeaten 92, was glad that his gamble to play two spinners paid off and commended them for a gutsy show at the small County ground.

“We took a bit of a gamble there… I think our spinners really bowled well, considering the small boundaries, and they took crucial wickets. We needed every one of them to defend even a total like 329 at this ground. It was a good effort considering that England have some good players of spin.”

Next in line for praise were Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly who got the visitors off to a flying start with a 113-run opening stand. Sachin made a splendid 99, missing out on his 42nd one-day International hundred.

“Sachin and Sourav got us off to a great start and kind of set the tempo. Sachin’s innings was top draw,” he said.

On sending Yuvraj Singh in at No. 3 he said, “It was a spontaneous plan… I was keen on keeping the tempo going and thought Yuvi was the guy to do that for us.”

About his own innings, Dravid said: “It came off for me and I had a bit of luck. I timed it well and just finished strong… Even though we lost at the Rose Bowl the other day, I felt a bit good about my batting. Everything came off well, as it happens some days.”

The captain, however, was not too happy about the fielding.

“Our catching would have been better… we could have taken a few more catches,” he said. “At one stage, I thought it might hurt us badly.”

“It is that kind of ground that when somebody has a good day and starts clearing the boundaries, you cannot do much.”

On the fitness problems ofsome of the players, Dravid said things hadn’t been as serious as they had been made out to be. “Sachin was fit enough to play the game. He spoke to me in the morning and he felt comfortable.

“Only Zaheer (Khan) we felt was not fully fit for the game. There was a bit of doubt about Yuvi as well, but he went through the training in the morning and felt good.”