After New Zealand recorded their second victory against India in the Coca Cola Cup, Craig McMillan admitted that this game was a crucial one since the victory gave them the edge over the Indians to qualify for the final.

McMillan who acts as the stand-in captain for Stephan Fleming who is still down with stomach trouble came out with this remark with a smile on his face, "When you look back you'll see, we've won two games that we shouldn't have won and we've lost two games we shouldn't have lost."

However, the Kiwi skipper was not entirely happy about his side's batting performance. "The batting has been disappointing. We've been having good starts unlike the other sides. But the middle order doesn't continue the good work," remarked McMillan.

"It's not easy to bat out there. The way wickets are playing it's not easy to get your ones and twos. And if you don't get your ones and twos that's the time you look for a boundary and eventually that brings your downfall."

New Zealand's vulnerability against spinners continues. Runs have dried out in the middle overs for them since both the Sri Lankan and Indian teams are packed with quality spinners.

"Yes, the reason may be that the other sides are packed with spinners. But let's be honest. The Indian batsmen have struggled against Harris and Vettori as well."

"We've learnt a few lessons as well. We've begun to understand that keeping wickets intact is more crucial than picking up a boundary."

Indian captain Sourav Ganguly, after his side's third successive defeat told CricInfo "I am disappointed. It was a good batting track. We just didn't bat well."

Winning the toss, Ganguly put the opposition in, but he was not entirely happy with the side's bowling performance either, "The bowlers didn't bowl well in the first 10 overs. It was a damp pitch. They just didn't bowl in the right spot and gave away too many runs."

India's batting which has been disappointing right from the beginning of the series failed once again, "We never put up a decent partnership. You don't win games if you don't put up partnerships," said the Indian captain. "We are concerned about our batting. I just can't understand why we keep on getting out for 130s."

When asked as to whether there was any positives to emerge from the three games, his reply was, "nothing."

Dion Nash won the man of the match award basically for his batting where he made a crucial 42 batting at number eight, "You don't get very many opportunities batting at number eight in the one dayers. I just got it today and am happy about the end result."

© CricInfo