Indian boos fired us up: Collingwood

London:

England captain Paul Collingwood said the boos of Indian supporters helped fire his team to victory on Sunday and send the defending champions crashing out.

England beat India by three runs at Lord's to keep alive their hopes of making the semi-finals, but a second successive Super Eights defeat meant India's campaign was over.

"When we were practising at the nursery ground today, we were booed by the Indian fans. It was hard to believe we were playing at home. So we used those boos as motivation to put on a party piece," said Collingwood.

England made 153-7 off their 20 overs and then had the highly-regarded Indian batsmen struggling to keep up the run rate as pace bowlers Ryan Sidebottom, James Anderson and Stuart Broad dug the ball in.

"It was a fantastic performance by the bowlers," said Collingwood, whose team still need to beat West Indies at the Oval on Monday to reach the semi-finals.

"We were hoping the wicket had a bit of pace in it and we got a lot of balls in some really good areas. They kept going for it and we kept taking wickets."

India skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who won the toss and chose to field, admitted his team's batting performance was unforgivable after they plodded to 87-5 from 14 overs.

"Their bowlers started really well. They were aggressive and used the bouncer and the short ball well," said Dhoni.

"We failed in the batting. There is no excuse."

Big-hitting Yuvraj Singh, who famously smashed six sixes in an over off Broad at the 2007 tournament, only appeared at the fall of the fourth wicket despite the sluggish progress made by the top order.

Ravindra Jadeja struggled, taking 35 balls to make just 25 as India lost vital momentum.

"Yuvraj could have gone in higher up but we thought Jadeja would stabilise the innings but we lost wickets at unfortunate times," added Dhoni.

"The run rate climbed on us and the timing of the wickets was crucial."