Hussain claims India are favourites in crunch game

Captain Nasser Hussain looked forward to England's crucial clash against India on Sunday after his side's emphatic 108-run victory against Zimbabwe claiming that his inexperienced side were the clear underdogs.

England's win has set up a virtual quarter-final with India, the winner of which will probably play against South Africa.

"The coach doesn't need to tell us anything about India," said an exhausted Hussain, "they are a fine side and it is going to be a great game."

He added: "India must be the favourites in these conditions but if we play as professionally as we did tonight then we have every chance of beating them."

"We will have to play the spinners well and it will be difficult containing their batting order, which keeps coming at you, on this good wicket."

He was delighted with the team's overall performance in such energy sapping conditions.

"It was especially good considering that we have come straight out of England after a very long, hard, summer - I thought it was a very professional performance," he said.

"Marcus's form has been good for a long time now and it was nice to see him get a hundred, but the team is more than one player."

"Generally, the batting has been going well during the last summer. We carried that on today with some good partnerships."

England looked set for a score in excess of 300 at one stage, but lost momentum after the second half of the innings.

"We probably got 10 to 20 runs less than we should have done but I think that was down to fatigue," he said. "We could be a little fitter but it was really tough work out there in that heat."

He praised the efforts of Matthew Hoggard who took three top-order wickets, showing great stamina as he bowled his 10 overs off the reel.

"He got into the side in the first place through being a very good fast bowler with the white ball, but struggled a little bit in the summer," he said. "But we backed him and when he is swinging it like he did tonight then he is as good as anyone."

Heath Streak was particularly impressed with Trescothick.

"He definitely now rates with the Indian and Australian openers as one of the most destructive batsmen in the world," said Streak.

"We were out-played in all three departments today, but credit to England they played very well," he said. "Two hundred and ninety was always going to be difficult, we needed to pull them back to about 250."

He denied that the political turmoil at home is affecting the team's performance: "I don't see any reason why the political pressures on us in Zimbabwe should be an excuse - that shouldn't affect us."