“I don't know how the umpires felt towards the end, but I don't think the players lost confidence in them. The umpires are out there like me, trying to do the best job they can. I've made a few mistakes and I'm sure they've made a few mistakes. That's the game of cricket. I would like to think coming out of this Test match how great a game it was rather than focus on a few little areas mentioned earlier.”
Asked if he felt at any stage that he had delayed the declaration — Australia batted on for more than two hours on the final morning — the captain replied, “Actually, I had a thought about that when the Dhoni-Kumble partnership held us up. It was pretty tough to get it right. I didn't actually know what was the right amount of runs and the right amount of overs. The scoring rate right through the game has been hot, almost four runs an over. I wasn't going to set anything easy for the Indians to chase.”
Equating this win to last summer'sAdelaide win against England, the Tasmanian went on, “It's right up there. Any Test you win in the last 8-10 minutes of the final session is going to be pretty special. To do it after 70-run deficit in the first innings and not played our best cricket until the second innings makes this win as good as any.
“Whenever you win a Test match, you should celebrate because it's not an easy thing to do. Five days in this Sydney heat on a very good SCG wicket, it's hard work to win a game.  Right throughout the day, I wasn't thinking of those 16 Tests, I was thinking of this one Test and what I was going to do next and what the team was going to do next to win this Test. We next go to Perth on a wicket and conditions that probably should suit us a lot more then it should the Indians.”
Ponting said he had gambled by bringing on Michael Clarke in the last few moments of the Test. Clarke responded by taking the last three wickets in five deliveries.
“Probably, the last 30-40 minutes was about gambling, rolling the dice. It looked like the faster bowlers were actually easier to play than the spinners. Michael told me when I gave the him the ball, 'I've got just enough time to win us the game'. He's always had a fair bit of confidence in himself.”