England's win over West Indies as good as winning Ashes: Swann

London, Mar 18 (ANI): Off spinner Graeme Swann has rated England's 18 run World Cup win over West Indies as good as winning The Ashes.

"This is up there with The Ashes for raw emotion. We've dug ourselves a large hole in this tournament but we're slowly getting out of it," he said.

After Jonathan Trott's throw to wicketkeeper Matt Prior completed the winning run out, the players charged towards each other for a leaping, jumping huddle on the outfield, The Sun reports.

Skipper Andrew Strauss said: 'More than anything, it was the togetherness that got us through. We've been through some tough times this winter as a group and we desperately didn't want to be leaving the World Cup at this stage."

"I wish it hadn't been as close but I'm delighted we won. Even though West Indies needed just 20-odd runs with four wickets standing, I still thought there was another twist in the tail.

"After Trott's disallowed catch, our heads could have dropped. But the guys were remarkably buoyant. We felt something was going to happen," Strauss said. (ANI)