"Myself and Andy (Flower) went down to the umpire's room as we wanted to clarify the situation. We felt it was clear he wasn't attempting a run and so we asked India to reconsider their appeal and then left it at that.

"It was very commendable they changed their mind and took back the appeal. We are not disputing he was out but one of the things that has set the game of cricket slightly apart from other sports is that you have the opportunity to show some spirit," he said.

Dhoni acknowledged that Strauss thanked him for his gesture this morning.

"We wanted to be happy at the end of the day. This is the decision we are satisfied with. We had almost decided (to call Bell back) when they (Strauss and Fletcher) came for the meeting," remarked Dhoni.

"There were also Ian Bell and Tim Bresnan with the second innings batting which gave us a breathing space. It also fills me with a lot of confidence for the future that we can go on and become a better side," the English skipper said.

Strauss dismissed the notion that with this win, England have taken a very strong step towards completing a whitewash in the series.

"We don't look at it like that. All we are looking to do is to turn up at Edgbaston and try and win that Test match. We have had to work very hard to win these two Tests and we don't expect anything different next week," Strauss said.

"Once a team gets the momentum it can be hard to stop them and I'm delighted to finish a day early. It's also very hard for opposition captains when guys in your lower order can play as well and as freely as those two (Broad and Bresnan) are," he said.

Strauss also had words of appreciation for the depleted Indian bowling attack.

"They stuck to their task very well. They obviously have had to bowl a lot of overs but we had to work very hard for our runs. They have taken early wickets in all innings and our batters have done exceptionally well to gradually earn the initiative in both the Tests," he opined.