India frittered away a golden chance of winning the second Test against New Zealand but skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni inexplicably continued to defend his listless bowlers and even found the team's display during the winless tour as "quite a good performance".
Dhoni, who has invariably come out with bizarre explanations for the team's shoddy performances at press conferences, again ignored to dwell on the bowling frailties and came to the rescue of his "fantastic" bowlers who gave away 680 runs in second innings, saying that they bowled "in the right areas".
Summing up what has turned out to be a disastrous tour, Dhoni said he was disappointed with the ODI results as they failed to capitalise on situations but was more satisfied with the performance of his "young" team in the Test matches.
"Overall, quite a good performance. We have been improving right from South Africa. We have shown that we are a side that's very talented," said Dhoni.
"We did well in the series, in this Test because we fought back pretty well ourselves. We bowled the right areas, which I think is very important on the flat wickets," he said.
Having bundled out the Black Caps for 192 in the first innings and taken a 246-run lead, India looked like winning the second Test, as they reduced New Zealand to 94 for five in their second innings.
But Brendon McCullum (302) staged a remarkable fightback and together with BJ Watling shared a world record partnership of 352 runs for the sixth wicket to take the hosts to safety.
"In the first Test our second innings was brilliant. And then we came here won the toss and bowled really well in the first innings. In the second innings also we got a good start till Brendon and Watling came in. I don't think it was bad bowling but it is just that they kept the good deliveries out," the Indian skipper explained.
"Appreciate what Brendon and Watling did, soak up the pressure when we were bowling well and score freely once the bowlers were tired," he said.
