The 21-year-old Uthappa, called in to replace Dinesh Karthik, scored an unbeaten 47 to lead India to a daunting target of 317 with two balls to spare after Sachin Tendulkar [Images] had earlier fallen six runs short of his century.

• India wins thriller to level series

The seven-match series will now be decided in the final encounter at Lord's on Saturday.

"We were struggling but Robin finished it off for us," a delighted Dravid told the BBC. "Any time you chase 300-plus is always going to be a test but the young boys set up a brilliant victory for us.

"I've never seen Robin bat at seven before. He's got a good cricketing brain. He's improving all the time and working very hard in nets.

"Watching him he's begging to be picked. The way he managed the chase was very good."

Uthappa also ran out England debutant Luke Wright with a superb piece of fielding while Mahendra Singh Dhoni [Images] chipped in with 35 towards the end of the India innings and young spinner Piyush Chawla bowled Ian Bell [Images] when England batted.

"Uthappa has not had much cricket and to play the kind of innings that he did is terrific, he's only 21 and it's a good sign for us. It was brilliant effort," said Dravid.

India trailed the series 3-1 but can now follow their Test series victory with an unlikely repeat in the one-day series.

"We've given ourselves a chance now... we knew we had to win both these games to give ourselves a chance. But we'll have to play better at Lord's, we don't want to have to score 300 runs to win all the time."

England skipper Collingwood added: "It was a shame to lose but congratulations to India, they played a great game.

"We didn't get off to a great start but for Luke (Wright) to change the momentum of the game as he did and for Owais (Shah) to get his first 100 was a great way to finish the first half of the match."

Tendulkar, who was suffering from cramp and could hardly walk at the end of his innings, said he would be fit to play in Saturday's showdown at Lord's.