As the Indian team was looking for reasons for its defeat in the second Test which denied it a series win, it was Zimbabwe captain Heath Streak who came up with the most apt explanation for the visitors' plight.

Streak said batting on wickets such as those in Zimbabwe required a lot of patience and it was exemplified in the performance by man-of- the-series Shiv Sunder Das, but the rest of the Indian batsmen simply failed to emulate the diminutive opener.

"Throughout the series, Das showed the patience required on wickets with a bit of extra bounce. He knew where his off-stump was and he didn't play unnecessary shots," Streak told reporters on Monday.

"It was not an easy wicket to come out and dominate and play shots. For example, VVS Laxman came in and started to play some brilliant strokes. But it is hard to play attacking cricket consistently on this wicket," he said.

Understandably pleased with his team's performance, Streak said the victory was made possible by the best use of their talent. "We had a bad start in the first innings but we recovered pretty well. The Flower brothers really got us back into the game. And we made the best of our talent and some of the tailenders batted really well. All the way down, seven, eight, nine, they all chipped in. Those were some of the things which probably won the game for us," he said.

© PTI