“I am disappointed we didn't get to 17, but 16 matches in a row is a great achievement. It would have been great to win one more but we haven't been good enough in this game. The run was always going to come to an end at some stage, we just haven't played a brand of cricket that was good enough to win this match,” added the 33-year-old.

Ponting echoed coach Tim Nielsen when he blamed his team's first-innings batting for the result. “The bowlers did a good job but 212 in the first innings was nowhere near enough. When you are 120 behind, it is hard to fight back, especially when you are batting last. We fought hard today and several of us got starts, but no one got a big score which is what you need when you are chasing 400.”

Admitting that he had not been surprised at India's bounce-back, the Tasmanian observed, “The Indians are a very good team. We never underestimate any opponent and certainly not the Indians because we know they, particularly their batting, can be a formidable opponent and their bowlers did a terrific job here. We have seen them bounce back in the past, in Kolkata in 2001 and in Adelaide on their last tour here, we know what they are capable of.”

Ponting was asked if his side had lost a little of its edge in trying to be on its best behaviour after the flak it got for its Sydney histrionics. “I stressed to the guys to play exactly the same brand of aggressive, hard-nosed Test match cricket,” he asserted. “If anything, our skills let us down a little bit here, we faltered a little in critical moments and it has been a long time since we did that.”

Defending playing an all-pace attack, he said, “We probably misread the conditions leading into this game a bit. Anyone who got out there and had a look at the wicket leading into the game might have thought that it would have had a lot more pace and bounce than it did. We picked the team we thought would win us the Test match. The problem was not with the bowling, we did very well as a bowling unit in both innings. It was in the batting department that we let ourselves down.”