England coach Brendon McCullum, in a magnanimous gesture, admitted that India deserved to be the winners of the fifth and last Test at The Oval, applauding their determination and show during the crucial phases of the match.
England, who needed 35 runs for a four-wicket victory with four wickets intact at the start of the last day of the series finale, were set to conclude the series in 3-1 favor, but Indian pace bowler Mohammed Siraj took the game in the reverse direction through a scintillating bowling display, taking three vital wickets and securing a thrilling six-run win for India and tying the series 2-2.
"With the way India were behind on in this Test, Mohammed Siraj has the sheer heart of a lion to bowl at 90mph in his 30th over of his fifth Test match. It's an absolutely remarkable effort," McCullum said to ESPNCricinfo.
Reviewing the result, McCullum conceded, "As much as we put ourselves in to win this Test match, I reckon they deserved to win. They played better cricket."
The ex-New Zealand skipper also praised India's resilience during the series. "We hurled everything at them during the series. It was a testimony to how resilient they are as a team. We knew when they arrived in England it was going to be a very tough challenge and we'd have to produce top-quality cricket to achieve the outcome we desired.
In the future, McCullum conceded that England has some things to fix as they prepare for their next major test—the Ashes tour in Australia this year.
"We'll let this one sit, we'll digest it. We'll be able to pick out what has gone well then start to work out how we can keep improving so, when we do arrive out in Australia, we give ourselves a huge chance," he said.
"This is the halfway stage of what we always knew would be an extraordinary 12 months of Test cricket. We know there's still work to do. You're always learning—particularly when you see players stretched to the limit and going to new depths."
He signed off by saying he was proud of his team's performance regardless of the setbacks. "There's plenty to select as we take time to process this and work out areas we can look to adapt for our next test. At the end of the day, I'm really proud of the lads and their work. It's been a dogged series, it's taken its toll with injuries, some of the best players have returned home injured."
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