BBC SPORT | Cricket | England | England in India | Hussain praises exceptional effort

"From how we played in Mohali to here we were a different side," said Hussain.

"To bowl out Indian side on that wicket for 290 in the first innings was an exceptional effort."

But, while saying that the inexperienced side was playing at its best, he acknowledged that more needed to be done to square the series in next week's final Test in Banglaore.

"We have still got to work out a way of getting 20 wickets if we want to win a Test match. The last two wickets we have played on showed how hard that can be.

"That is the best this side can play. If we do that again we will put ourselves in a chance of winning again in Bangalore. If we do anything less than that we will finish second best."

Hussain said the nature of the pitch and his inexperienced bowling were the reasons for not declaring the second innings on Friday.

"The fact that we did not declare had nothing to do with losing the series here," he said.

"It was because of the nature of the wicket, [which] was not as bad as everyone was making it out to be.

"Our bowling line up is an inexperienced one and the bowlers have toiled and toiled. Ashley Giles was coming back from a lay-off, Hoggard and Flintoff had niggles.

"I thought it was a pretty fair target we set India on a flat wicket."

Slow batting

Indian captain Sourav Ganguly also had praise for the way England performed.

"England played pretty well in this Test match. It was a flat deck, but I thought the spinners worked pretty well," he said.

Indian skipper Sourav Ganguly
Ganguly defended India's batting for a draw
"We did well today to still be up 1-0 going to Bangalore. We were under pressure because it was not an easy wicket for the new batsmen."

Ganguly defended his team's slow batting on the final day, saying they had no chance of chasing a 374-run target for victory.

"The pitch was slow and we knew the moment we started going for runs, Nasser would go on the defensive," said Ganguly.

Only two teams - India (406-4 v West Indies at Port of Spain in 1975-76) and Australia (404-3 v England at Leeds in 1948) - have ever made more than 374 to win a Test.

"Getting four or more runs in an over on this pitch would have been very difficult," Ganguly said.

"I would not blame Nasser for not declaring. He thought 97 overs were enough for them to try and bowl us out.

"Even though we were well placed after lunch, but when Das got out we still needed more than 250 in less than two sessions.

"That was quite a bit against a defensive field. We then looked to merely bat the day out."

Craig White
White cracked the three figure mark
Man-of-the-match Craig White said he was delighted to notch his first Test century in England's first innings.

It was the first time the all-rounder had passed three figures in 23 Tests.

"I had a 93 in Pakistan and so to get my first test 100 was a great feeling," he said.

"I felt we just had to bat and get as many runs as we could and be positive. You had to be patient and once you were in it got a little bit easier."