“We had our chances in the first innings that we probably should have taken. On such surfaces, where you know it's tough to get wickets, half chances matter. Overall catching is something we need to improve on,” Kumble said.

The veteran leg-spinner said the team was looking forward to the third Test in Bangalore, beginning on Saturday, to make it 2-0.

“We wanted to finish the series here and had a great opportunity. But we go to Bangalore 1-0 up and we're looking forward to a 2-0 series victory. We would have liked to make it 2-0 here but you have to give it to Pakistan for the way they batted. Misbah and Kamran in the first innings and also in the second innings.”

“We probably needed more time, but that's the best time I could manage after they avoided the follow-on. Ideally, it would have been good to have the opportunity to give them the follow-on. But with that not happening I thought the best thing was to give ourselves 80 overs,” he added.

But Kumble refused to admit that Pakistan had gained a moral win from this draw. “I don't believe in moral victories. It's really crazy. I don't know why people talk about moral victories. When you struggle to pick up five wickets in both innings, we can’t talk about moral victory. To me, what matters is the result and I think overall we dominated the match over the five days.”

Kumble patted his bowlers for a large-hearted show at the Eden Gardens. “It was tough to bowl on this pitch. It got slower and slower and even when it spun it spun very slowly. Considering the pitch and the conditions I thought our bowlers put in a fantastic effort. It's been really tiring for the bowlers to try and ensure that 20 wickets are taken. We did really well to get at least 14.”

The Bangalorean picked paceman Munaf Patel for special praise and said there was no fitness concern over the bowler. “He's fine. He's bowled really well on these kinds of surfaces. Especially, in the second innings he mixed things up well to give us a crucial breakthrough.”