England head coach Brendon McCullum admitted India "deserved" to win the fifth and final Test at The Oval as the visitors played better cricket in the closing stages.
England had entered the final day needing just 35 more runs with four wickets in hand and looked poised to seal the series 3-1.
However, pacer Mohammed Siraj produced a stunning spell, taking three wickets to bowl India to a memorable six-run win and level the series 2-2.
"The way India were late on in this Test, Mohammed Siraj has the absolute heart of a lion to bowl 90mph in his 30th over of his fifth Test match. It's quite an incredible effort," McCullum was quoted as saying by 'ESPNCricinfo'.
"As much as we got ourselves in a winning position this Test match, I feel like they deserved to win. They played better cricket." "We threw everything at them in the series. It was testament to how stoic they are as a team. We knew when they turned up in England it would be a very stern challenge and we'd have to play excellent cricket to get the result we wanted," he added.
McCullum conceded that England have areas to work on as they now shift focus to the upcoming Ashes series in Australia later 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.
"We're in the middle now, halfway through what we knew was going to be an unbelievable 12 months of Test cricket. We know we've got some room to improve. You're always learning any time you get to see guys having to dig deep and go to places they've maybe not been before." "There's lots to pick out as we give ourselves time for this to digest and work out areas we can look to improve for our next challenge. Ultimately, I'm really proud of the guys and their efforts. It's been a combative series, it's taken its toll with injuries, some of the best players have gone home injured," he added.
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