Second innings batting let us down: Dravid

Indian captain Rahul Dravid blamed the team's batting collapse in the second innings which allowed South Africa to come back into the match and claim the series 2-1.

"We did not bat well yesterday. We were short of 60-70 runs. They (South Africa) came and batted well today," Dravid said.

"This has been the probably the best of the last three tours here but it was very disappointing to lose today. We dominated the Test for three days and could have done better," he said.

"All credit to Graeme Smith and his team for a great series. They fought back and were deserving winners."

Dravid, however, said that there were some positives from the tour, specially the bowling of S Sressanth and Zaheer Khan.

"There are lot of positives to be taken from the tour. Sreesanth and Zaheer had good success right through the series. It is really helpful for the team to have young quick bowlers.

"We will be playing eight one-day matches before the World Cup. And our focus will be on that," he added.

South African skipper Graeme Smith rated it as a "special" win after all the "rubbish" that critics had dished out after the first Test in Johannesburg.

First Published: Jan 07, 2007 14:20 IST