Pietersen: Defeat ’a bitter pill to swallow’

Agence France-Presse

"Our boys tried our hearts out," he said. "We did not come here just to compete, we wanted to win and we thought we were in a pretty good position to do that. But unfortunately we got pipped today. It is a very, very bitter pill to swallow in our dressing room."

Batting great Sachin Tendulkar hit an unbeaten 103 as India surpassed the seemingly improbable victory target of 387 on a wearing wicket with 20.3 overs to spare on the fifth and final day. The win gave the hosts a 1-0 lead in the two-match series with the second Test starting in Mohali on Friday.

Pietersen admitted it was particularly hard to take after his team had dominated for a major part of the match with both bat and ball and gained a 75-run first innings lead.

Flamboyant opener Virender Sehwag set up the memorable win by smashing 83 off 68 balls with 11 fours and four sixes to leave the hosts 131-1 at stumps on Sunday evening.

’Master from Mumbai’

Left-hander Yuvraj Singh, recalled to the Indian team following the retirement of Sourav Ganguly, chipped in with 85 not out in an unbroken fifth-wicket stand of 163 with Tendulkar.

"I think after day one if we said we had to defend 250 on the final day we would have taken that," Pietersen said. "Sehwag obviously started the innings fantastically well last night and then the little master from Mumbai (Tendulkar) came in. As a skipper and a bowling unit you try and set a field to a magician like that, and it is pretty difficult."

India's captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, praised his team for fighting back from a difficult position.

"We were outplayed on the first three days, so it was important to play the next two days with a lot of intensity," said Dhoni. "We have seen over the years in India that on the fourth and fifth day the game changes a lot and it changes very quickly."